| From an investor's standpoint, it's interesting to think about how people would interpret the information presented by an index of this nature. Dupe outbreaks and even controlled private dupes can lead to hyperinflation in MMO economies, and liquidity is a very big question mark.
The article seems to suggest that it is the economic activity that is being indexed, rather than the value of currency say WoW gold to the US dollar or something similar. I suppose the investments would then be in private deals with IGE or a similar dealer to benefit from the success they're having, rather than the actual buying and selling of the online currency to create a profit either from changes in currency valuation, or just buying high and selling low. There is also a big question as to whether or not there is even available liquidity to do the ladder. If more and more companies decided to create positions in these economies to compete with IGE rather than invest directly into them, you could probably see the gaudy margins that IGE makes on their currency dwindle away, which would bring rise to a much easier ability for the average person to buy and sell online currency for profit.
The thought of attributing the idea of financial derivatives to MMO economies is also somewhat interesting, but overall the economies are likely too unstable to have anything of that nature have longterm success.
Regardless, i'm very intersted to see how this plays out, and have a feeling that it'll definately give the government another reason to start taxing MMO currencies. |