What is BeerX?

BeerX is a competitive simulation of a beer market. Beer prices will change in real time with shifts in supply and demand, both of which are established by players in the game.  Teams compete by buying beer off of an open market, selling it back to the market, or selling to the bar, who will offer them a real drink in exchange.  The most profitable team at the end of the night wins!  

The Adam Smith Society (Darden Chapter), Darden Capital Management, and the Darden School of Brew have all contributed to make BeerX possible.

Why BeerX?

In an era of ever increasing financial market complexity and regulation, the creators of BeerX believe it is paramount for today's business school students to understand how securities exchanges work. This knowledge enables them to develop informed opinions on how to participate in a market, how a market should be regulated, what is meant by "market efficiency," and the impact of different participants in the market (e.g., high-frequency or algorithmic traders).

When is BeerX?

Friday, January 25th, 2019 @ 7pm. 

What time will trading start, and how many trading sessions will there be?

Answer coming soon. 

Where will BeerX 2019 be held?

Random Row Brewery in Charlottesville. We have rented out the entire brewery for the event.

How do I sign up?

Click this link: www.beerx.net/signup

Do I need to sign up with a team? 

You will have the option to sign up with a team of your choosing, or to sign up as a free agent.  Free agents will be randomly placed on teams at the start of the event. 

How much does it cost to attend BeerX?

Attendees will be charged a $12 cover charge, unless the attendee belongs to one of the sponsoring clubs.  In exchange, you may redeem as many of the beers in your portfolio at the bar as you would like during the game (i.e., drinks are free).

Sponsoring clubs include:

  • The Adam Smith Society (Darden Chapter)

  • Darden Capital Management

  • Darden School of Brew

What do I get for paying the $12 cover charge?

When you sign up for BeerX, a user account at app.beerx.net will be created that includes a starting number of digital drink tickets and BeerCash. The event is effectively open bar.   

What is BeerCash?

BeerCash is the virtual currency that attendees will use to buy and sell digital drink tickets at BeerX. 

No, BeerCash is not on the blockchain.

Is BeerX open bar?

Yes and no.  While there will technically be no limit on the number of physical beverages you can obtain at the event, drinks must be obtained through the trading simulation.  Thus, if you unwisely trade away all of your BeerCash, you may need to lean on your friends to get a drink at the bar!

I don't drink alcohol, or I don't like beer.  Can I still come?

Yes! Definitely! There will be non-beer and non-alcoholic beverages on the menu, and you can still come to beat the market and win a prize.  Redeeming beers at the bar is only one way to trade for a profit. Your team can still win without any redemptions.  Fountain drinks will be complementary at the bar, and will not require digital drink tickets from the trading simulation. 

How will teams be ranked or scored?

Each team will start the night with a number of drink tickets and amount of BeerCash that is proportional to the number of team members.  Teams will be ranked on rate of return throughout the night.  The team with the highest return wins!

How many drink tickets do I get when I arrive?

You will share a pool of drink tickets with your team members.  Each team will start with a number of drink tickets proportional to the number of team members on your team. 

What is a digital drink ticket?

A digital drink ticket is a financial asset that entitles its holder to one physical beverage of a specific type at the BeerX event.  For example, an IPA Digital Drink Ticket would entitle an attendee to trade in and receive one physical IPA beer to drink.

How do I trade my drink tickets?

Using the BeerX app, available at app.beerx.net you can submit Market or Limit orders for each type of drink ticket available on the exchange.  Purchase orders are limited by the amount of BeerCash available in your portfolio,  sell orders are limited by the number of digital drink tickets available in your portfolio. 

What is a market order (and how does it work)?

A market order is a request to buy (sell) a specific type of digital drink ticket at the best ask (bid).  If you submit a market buy (sell) order at a time when no opposite ask (bid) limit order exists on the exchange, then your market order will be cancelled when it arrives at the exchange. 

What is a limit order?

A limit order is a request to buy (sell) a specific type of digital drink ticket at a specified price or better.  For example, you may submit a limit BUY order for IPA at a price of $5 or better. If market prices are at $4, then your order will be executed at $4. If market prices are at $6, your order will not be executed until they fall to $5.

At BeerX, limit orders also specify a "Good Until" attribute, as 1, 3, or 5 minutes.  If a limit order has not been executed after the time interval specified in the order's "Good Until" field, the order will automatically be cancelled.  

Can I cancel an order?

Limit orders are canceled when the time interval specified in the "Good Until" has elapsed.  Market orders are either executed or cancelled immediately.  In order to simplify user experience on the mobile app, orders can only be cancelled via one of these two conditions.

How do I turn in my drink ticket for a physical beverage (that I can actually drink)?

On the BeerX mobile app, you will see three primary options:  Buy, Sell, and Drink.  In order to drink a beer, select a beer and click the DRINK button.  A QR code will appear, that staff volunteers can scan and provide you with a paper drink ticket redeemable at the actual bar.  Each paper ticket will indicate which menu item it is redeemable for. 

While it may seem like one more step than necessary (to exchange QR code for a paper ticket),  this process allows venue bartenders to focus on serving you without worrying about how to use our app!

When I drink a beer, does my portfolio value fall by the value of the beer I drank?

No.  We want to make sure that you can freely trade in your digital drink tickets for beverages without compromising your chances of winning the simulation, so every time you trade in a digital drink ticket for a beverage your team's account will be credited with an amount of BeerCash equal to the last traded price of the beverage you request.  As you guessed, it is a good idea to drink your expensive beers and hold on to your cheap ones, or wait until prices change!

What is a bid-ask spread?

A bid-ask spread is the difference between the best bid (buy) limit order and the best ask (sell) limit order currently resting on the exchange for a given product.  Wide bid-ask spreads indicate that a given product is less liquid and more costly to trade, while narrow bid-ask spreads suggest just the opposite.

How do orders clear on the exchange?

Orders are processed on the BeerX exchange in the order that they are received.  If many orders are received in a very short time period, you may find that it takes a few seconds to find out if your order has been executed.  To see the current status of the order book for each product, check out the projected live displays at the BeerX event.

Will BeerX Exchange include any automated traders (bots) ?

It takes a lot of traders submitting a lot of limit orders every millisecond to create the kind high liquidity and smooth pricing behavior observable in public equity markets, and even though 100 traders at the BeerX markets sounds like a lot, in our experience it is not enough to keep the market running smoothly.  As a result, we have introduced automated market makers to operate on the BeerX exchange, but by design their behavior will not be consistent or predictable, so don't place major bets on them!  

Have additional questions?

Let us know!

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