# Can you outsmart everyone else? Part II - Initial Discussion

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Note by Calvin Lin
4 years, 9 months ago

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The Co-operative strategy

Assumption : At least 10 people participate, and they agree on an oligoploy. Say $n$ people participate.

Strategy : Each of these 'colluders' will buy $\left[\frac{500}{n}\right]$ units.

Would that be a good idea??

- 4 years, 9 months ago

Sure!

I'm collaborating.

- 4 years, 9 months ago

How can one predict $n$ until everyone has commented?

- 4 years, 9 months ago

Looks like I missed it. I was busy shampooing my beard with carrot juice

- 4 years, 9 months ago

You can still catch up in round 3 !

- 4 years, 9 months ago

May your beard grow long and healthy.

- 4 years, 9 months ago

You have more money thatn @Nihar Mahajan!!

Staff - 4 years, 9 months ago

Why do we have two End Money Columns?

- 4 years, 9 months ago

You didn't invite me bro :( :(

- 4 years, 9 months ago

Sorry! You were not active on brilliant/slack for sometime, nor you commented something here. So I assumed you were out of station or not interested in this :(

- 4 years, 9 months ago

Oh no, it went into 21 minutes! It says maximum 20 tho... So did something go wrong... Also, how are we updated about the amount we have?

- 4 years, 9 months ago

Oh come on, I'm not superman to time it exactly to 20 mins and still entertain all incoming queries.

Staff - 4 years, 9 months ago

oops, i thought there was a program going on. Thanks! (and sorry)

- 4 years, 9 months ago

What's the difference between 'Pyou' and 'Pi' in your 'How to keep score' part?

- 4 years, 9 months ago

I've updated the lettering to make it standardized with economic terms.

$Q_{you}$ is your own production order.

$Q_i$ refers to the sum of production orders of everyone. It is indexed.

Staff - 4 years, 9 months ago

How much does one start off with?

- 4 years, 9 months ago

$0. But you can go into debt of -$5000 to place an initial order of production. I've updated the scoring section.

Staff - 4 years, 9 months ago

Oh cool, so if essentially the total production goes above 900, everyone loses out, yes? And could you provide a link to Part I ?

- 4 years, 9 months ago

The price that a unit of liquid gold sells for is P max(0,1000-TQ)

I think there is a small typo

- 4 years, 9 months ago

Thanks! I forgot the = sign.

Staff - 4 years, 9 months ago

As many people as possible can participate... Oh no. I already imagine everyone going into debt since many people might play. Well, one trivial method is to wait 5 min then submit. If one gets 90 people he is able to win. Each person in the group orders 50 each day. Then the cost will only be 100 or less. So this might turn out to be the best idea since it guarantees success. But how? haha.

I might put 50 for the first round since it is quite likely that people will not try to make the price cross below 100. So i think i might keep playing maximum since it is unlikely that people will make the cost drop over 100...

- 4 years, 9 months ago

Everyone would think the same. The sessions only last 5 minutes. As soon as the comments start coming, everyone will bet completely. Unless a set strategy for all is followed, it won't work out. Yes, there would be a few who don't stick to the strategy that's why @Janardhanan Sivaramakrishnan 's strategy is well bellow the borderline.

- 4 years, 9 months ago

Also, the determination of n is very tricky...

- 4 years, 9 months ago

An important query :

Can I participate in $i^{th}$ round even if I skip participation in one or more of the previous $i-1$ rounds?

The skipping a round is beneficial as a co-operative strategy in certain scenarios. Say, in a particular round I enter late and find that the total production is already $899$. Now, giving any positive order quantity will not cause any revenue increase for me and the worst part, giving an order $Q_i \ge 2$ will bring some loss to all.

- 4 years, 9 months ago

Yes. Production = 0 unless otherwise stated.

Staff - 4 years, 9 months ago

I hope $TQ < 900$ XD

- 4 years, 9 months ago

@Vighnesh Shenoy Maximum is 50

- 4 years, 9 months ago

Yea, I forgot that. Lol

- 4 years, 9 months ago