Allow users to set the duration after which the investment is evaluated.

[IshanManchanda]

The title pretty much summarizes the idea.

I think it would be really cool if one could set the period of time (in hours) after which the investment is evaluated. The default could be set to 4 hours, as currently is, but one could provide an additional parameter to set the time. Something like: !invest 100, 24.

It'd be a great addition, IMO, especially when coupled with the !sell idea. Also, having a fair bit of Python experience, I'd love to work on this...

[rickles42]

Hey @rippr, thanks for the suggestion and the offer of help!

Thinking about your idea a bit, it seems like it would be tricky to make it work well with our current investment formula. Basically, the way investments currently work, there's no reason to invest for a short period of time (upvote counts only go up, and return only goes up with greater investment counts). The fixed 4-hour investment window acts as a time limit---you have to pick a meme that will earn a certain number of upvotes in 4 hours, or else you lose money. If users could change that window to 12 hours, for example, then it makes it much easier to earn money.

I'm happy to keep thinking about how this would work. And if you're interested in contributing I'd also encourage you to check out some of the other Issues that you might be able to help with.

Thanks again!

[IshanManchanda]

Thanks for getting back to me on this.

I thought of that too - simply extending the time window gives you more time to accumulate upvotes but perhaps we can actually look at the rate of upvotes, rather than the total number.
If I'm very confident about an investment, and I know it's going to spike really soon, I can have a shorter duration and earn a huge amount. Conversely, if I see potential in something, but I don't expect it to reach the front page this evening, I can maybe choose to stay invested for a long period of time.

Also, I had another idea - How about we mimic the actual stock market by introducing supply and demand? Perhaps we could consider the amount of money invested into that post between your investment and its evaluation? Maybe we could ratio it to the amount spent before? Maybe the minimum investment could be a function of the amount that is currently pending evaluation?

Also, I'd like to apologize if I'm not bringing anything concrete to the table - these are only raw ideas that I'd love to discuss and build upon.

[Keanu73]

After all, we are implementing a stock market into MemeEconomy, so the mechanics of supply and demand will apply.