Daytrading is not bad per se, because, on a basic level, it increases the liquidity of the market and helps forming correct prices given the level of demand.
A tax on the sale value and not on the profit however is actually bad. This does indeed stop daytrading, but also discourage people to trade in general.
I'd suggest to test a system for a few seasons where a haircut is calculated and applied to any profit made. If you sell at a loss you pay the normal 3% fees and that's it if you sell at a profit you give up between 3%-100% of that profit, depending how many players you sold in the previous 16 weeks. See if that does increase the number of players traded.
Note that people are not stupid, they are not going to give away money to the game, unless they really have to. So the result of high taxes on sale values does not increase the drain from bank accounts, it simply reduces the trading activity. A tax on profit might drain as much if not more money from the economy depending how much more activity you'd see.
We made these points in the past, but Marin (and other GMs) was never able or willing to entertain a discussion on these points, their reasoning being that the change achieved the stated purpose (removing day trading) therefore it was ok lol. Shutting down the game would also solve every problem from training to micronations to daytrading and even LI!
Last edited by Lemonshine at 1/19/2017 9:06:49 AM