The game is about market bubbles. Each player represents a trader who deals in four market commodities: tulips (the Netherlands experienced a Tulip bubble during the 1640s), shares in the South Sea Company (a bubble that struck England in 1720), the U.S. stock market of the 1920s (the collapse of which led to the Great Depression), and shares in the Dot Com stocks (which collapsed in the late 1990s). A specially prepared deck of cards represents the vicissitudes of a fickle market. The goal is to time the market, make the most lucrative investments, and end the game with the most gold.

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