OFFICIAL RULES

Ticker Tape Sports Exchange is a free game played entirely with play money. Nothing in the game can be bought with real money, and nothing in it, including account balances, shares and rankings, can be exchanged for real money or anything of value. There are no entry fees and no purchases.

You may hold more than one account, and each will need its own verified email address once email sign-in launches. New accounts start with $25,000 in play money. You must be at least 13 years old to play.

Your username, your trades, your holdings and your results are public. Your email address, if you give one, is never shown to anyone.

During the beta, signing in needs only your username or email. Pick a name nobody would guess if you'd like to keep your account to yourself, and switch to email sign-in when it arrives.

Every trade is made with the market at the quoted price, which moves with each share bought or sold. There are no trades between players. You may short a player (sell shares you don't own and buy them back later), with collateral locked while the short is open and no borrow fee; a short whose loss reaches its locked money is covered automatically. The only other borrowing is staking a frozen position (section 4B).

Each trade carries a 1% fee, and there's no holding fee on shorts. No single player may be more than 35% of your account value at the time you buy. You may make up to 30 trades a minute and hold up to 50 open orders. If the price moves more than 2% between your quote and your confirmation, the trade is stopped and you can get a new quote.

Prices move only by trading, and trading can't move a player more than 35% above or below what his play is worth, and one account's net trading in one player is limited each day. Orders past either limit are refused, or for resting orders, filled only up to it.

Team stocks trade like players, with the same fee, limits and shorting, and pause while the team plays. A team stock is valued on the team's results, never its players' prices, and like a player it moves only by trading. A newly listed player opens at a scheduled IPO time, with a deeper market for his first 24 hours.

Trading on a player halts when his game starts and reopens 30 minutes after the final, at the price where it stopped. We may also pause any player's trading at any time to protect the market, for example for breaking injury news.

A long absence (14 days or more in the NBA, 10 or more in the NFL) puts a player on an injury hold: trading stops, open orders on him are cancelled, and his price freezes at its pre-injury level until he's activated. Holders may cash out during the hold at the frozen price less 5%.

If a player is ruled out for the season, each holder may choose once, within 7 days, to close at 90% of the frozen price or to hold through until he returns. Holding through is final and the shares can't be sold until he's back. Positions with no choice by the deadline are closed at 90%.

Injury status comes from public injury reports. If a report turns out to be wrong, we'll correct holds as fairly as we can, and our decision is final.

When a league's regular season ends, every player in it freezes at his closing price (the lower of his last price and his 24-hour average). Each holder may choose once, within 7 days, to close at that price or hold over the offseason; positions with no choice close at the deadline. Trading reopens before the next season, with held players opening at their frozen price.

Frozen positions may be staked for buying power of up to 50% of their frozen value, at 0.05% a day. The loan is due when the position reopens or pays out, from cash first and then from the staked shares at the reopening price. You can never lose more than the staked shares. Amounts owed count against your account value for rankings, limits and reloads.

A player may be retired (sell only) or removed from the market, in which case holders are paid his current price.

If your account value drops under $15,000, then under $10,000, then under $5,000, you may reload $10,000 each time, up to 3 reloads in any 7 days. Reloads are counted as money put in and never improve your ranking.

Each league (NBA and NFL) runs a monthly contest for every calendar month of its season (Pacific time) and a season contest from opening night to the end of the regular season. You enter a contest by joining it, which opens a separate portfolio with $10,000 of play money. You can join any time before it ends.

A contest portfolio is kept apart from your all-time portfolio and from every other contest. It can only trade that league's players and team stocks, and it can't be reloaded or staked. Every order screen shows which portfolio a trade goes into.

Rankings use the percentage return on the entry budget. When a contest ends, every open position is settled at fair marks: shares at the lower of their price and their 24-hour average, and shorts at the higher, so a last-minute spike can't decide a contest. The final standings then lock.

To be ranked in a contest you must make at least 1 trade in it. The Long Haul view of a season contest ranks only traders who haven't sold any player or team stock within 7 days of buying it, and leagues can choose the same rule. Automated [BOT] traders appear on the boards for comparison and can never win anything.

While a contest runs, everyone can see each entrant's return, P&L, value and how much is invested against cash, but not their holdings. Contest trades are never shown publicly; once a contest ends, the final results are posted.

Your all-time portfolio is public by default. You can make its holdings and trades private from your portfolio page; your return and rank always show.

There are no prizes at this time. If prizes are ever offered, they'll come with their own published terms.

You may not use several accounts, or coordinate with other people, to move a player's price or to feed one account at another's expense. You may not trade against yourself or use scripts or automation to trade. You may not exploit a bug or a data error for gain. If you find one, tell us and we'll fix it.

We may review trading, reverse or adjust trades made through a bug or a data error, remove results, and suspend or delete accounts that break these rules. Our decisions are final.

This is an early version of the game, and we may change these rules, the players listed, the pricing model or anything else at any time, including resetting accounts. We'll announce material changes on the site. We don't guarantee the game will always be available or error-free.

Ticker Tape Sports Exchange is not affiliated with, endorsed by or licensed by the NBA, the NFL, any team, any players' association or any player. Player names and statistics are used to describe real-world performance.