Economics Challenge Series – Challenge 1: Buying and Selling Game Results

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the results post for the Buying and Selling Game. During the month of August, I will post all the results of the 2023 Economics Challenge Series. I will gradually work through all the seven challenges posted in July. This post contains a video generating the results of the challenge using a Microsoft Excel Model.

Winner determined in this video

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What is the Buying and Selling Game?

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For the benefit of those who have not entered this challenge nor the monthly contests, here is a brief explanation of how the challenge is played.

Participants are required to buy goods with an allocated amount of money. They are given a choice of 6 goods and all these goods are available in any of the 5 towns or cities in the challenge. The buying prices of all goods are provided in the question.

The participants are then required to sell all of their goods at a later date at the same or different location. The selling prices for all goods in all towns or cities are not provided. Instead, the question provides a triangle distribution for the selling price of each good in each town or city. For the triangle distribution, the minimum, maximum, and mode values are provided.

The participant who has the highest profit after selling all his or her goods is the winner.

Responses to the challenge are made in the comments section of the challenge post. If several participants make the same profit, the person who entered (commented) first wins. The total prize for this challenge could reach as high as 60 Hive Power. The number of participants determines the value of the prize. For every entry, the prize is increased by 5 Hive Power (e.g. if the challenge has 9 participants the prize will be 45 Hive Power (5 × 9)). The winner will receive 2/3 of the prize and second place will receive 1/3. In addition to the prize in Hive Power, the winner receives 25 points, second place 10 points, and third place 5 points; these points contribute to determining the overall challenge series winner. The most profitable buying and selling price combination is also calculated. If the prize is below 60 Hive Power and the winner adopts this strategy, he or she will receive an additional 5 Hive Power.

The format of the required entry is explained in detail in the challenge itself.

For a more detailed explanation, you can access the challenge post using the following link.

Other Challenges

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Below are the links to all seven challenges in the series.

• Challenge 1: Buying and Selling Game
• Challenge 2: Pick-a-Door
• Challenge 3: Complements and Substitutes
• Challenge 4: Buying and Selling Game (Business Version)
• Challenge 5: Ice Cream Game
• Challenge 6: Game Theory Game
• Challenge 7: Even-to-Win

Results of Challenge 1

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The prize for Challenge 1 is 60 Hive Power as the number of participants exceeded 12.

Table 1 contains the selling prices generated by the ‘Buying and Selling’ Game model for each flower in each town or city.

Table 1: Selling prices of all flowers in each town or city

Table 2 contains responses and the profit made by each participant.

Table 2: Participant responses and profit

*Note: one was participant eliminated for exceeding the budget of $8,000

The winner of challenge 1 is @practicaleric. @practicaleric wins 40 Hive Power (60 × 2/3) and 25 points. In second place is @semperfortis. @semperfortis wins 20 Hive Power (60 × 1/3) and 10 points. In third place is @fatherfaith who is awarded 5 points.

@practicaleric won by buying 9090 red roses for $0.88 each in Green Town for a total of $7,999.20. Then went on to sell these red roses at Arboretum for $1.318 each; thus, earning a revenue of $11,980.62. Therefore, made a profit of $3,981($11,980.62 – $7,999.20).

Highest possible profit

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@practicaleric also managed to obtain the highest possible profit with his selection of flowers and locations for buying and selling.

Table 3: Lowest buying price and highest selling price

Race to become the Challenge Series Champion

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After just one challenge, the overall scores for the Challenge Series are as follows.

Overall Series Score

Position	Participants	Points
1	Practicaleric	25
2	Semperfortis	10
3	Fatherfaith	5

This table will be updated in every results post.

Tips for future games (If you want to participate in the Buying and Selling Game monthly contest series, I strongly recommend you read this section of the post)

To achieve the best chance of winning the game (i.e. earning the highest profit). Participants need to make the best use of the information they are given. The participant should buy from the place that sells the good at the lowest price and sell at the place that will offer the highest price.

To inform the decision further, participants should also consider the mean and median prices for each good in each place. The mean and median for a triangle distribution can be calculated using the following formulae.

Mean = (Minimum + Maximum + Mode)/3

Median when Mode ≥ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to maximum)
Minimum + (((maximum – minimum) × (mode – minimum))/2)^0.5

Median when Mode ≤ (maximum – minimum)/2 (i.e. mode closer to minimum)
Maximum - (((maximum – minimum) × (maximum – mode))/2)^0.5

Proof Median

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More posts

I have several collection of posts. I have organised these collections based on content and purpose.

The first collection contains six collection posts created before PeakD had the collection feature. Four of these posts relate to the core of my content, one of them contains all my Actifit Posts, and one of the them contains my video course ‘Economics is Everyone’.

The second collection consists of the posts that I consider define my channel. These posts are significant in terms of content as well as how they contribute to the growth of the channel. These posts reveal the most about what I believe in.

The third and fourth collection is what I call my ‘Freedom-base Economics living book’. They contain all the posts that support my ideas about the value and power of freedom. Some of these posts explain what we can achieve with freedom and what we need to utilise it. Some of them explain how we are deprived of freedom and how we often give up freedom for security and comfort. The third collection concludes with possible scenarios depending on what we (society) choose to do.

Hive: Future of Social Media

Spectrumecons on the Hive blockchain

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