Shares and the two kinds of money

You have two kinds of money in Waybill, and they are kept apart. On another railroad's page the share panel names both, with a balance on each, so you can see which one is paying before you press anything. On your own page it names the one it uses.

Your railroad's money

This is the company's cash. Your trains earn into it. Stations, track and locomotives are paid out of it, and so is the daily upkeep. If it runs below zero for long enough, the court takes your railroad over.

When your railroad buys shares in another railroad, it pays from here, and the shares go into your railroad's own holdings. You can see them under Your railroad's holdings on your railroad's page.

Your own money

This is yours as a person, apart from the company. It starts at nothing when you found a railroad.

You do own something from the first day. You hold 15% of your own railroad's shares in your own name. Money reaches your pocket in two ways: dividends on shares you hold personally, and selling some of those shares.

If you joined a game as an investor, with no railroad, this is the only money you have. You start with a sum that suits the year, and you play the market with it.

Your own money buys shares and nothing else. Nothing moves directly between the two kinds of money. You cannot put your own money into the railroad, and the railroad cannot hand its money to you. When either one buys shares, the money goes to the public and leaves the game, and when either one sells, the money comes from the public. The only way money gets from a company into a pocket is a dividend.

Buying and selling shares

Open the Railroads tab and choose a railroad. Another railroad's page has a Capital section with the share panel. On your own railroad's page, the panel is called Buy and sell your own shares.

On another railroad's page, the panel shows:

• the price of one share, and how many you can buy right now;
• how much of that railroad your railroad owns, and how much you own yourself;
• Which money?, where you choose between Your railroad's money and Your own money, each with its balance.

Buying pays from the money you picked. Selling sells the shares that money's owner holds, and the proceeds go back into the same place.

On your own railroad's page there is no choice to make. The panel uses Your own money, shows only that balance, and shows only the shares you own yourself.

Type how many shares you want. The panel works out the total, and the buttons carry it: Buy 5 shares for $600.

A share has one price at a time, set by the game for each railroad. Whoever buys pays it. Buying pushes the price up a little, and selling pushes it down, and the push fades with time.

Why a deal is refused

The panel checks the number you typed before you press, and a button that cannot work says why in a sentence above the buttons. The first two reasons below stand alone. The others start with To buy: or To sell:, whichever button they are about. These are the reasons it gives:

• The box is empty. Type how many shares, one or more.
• The box is not a whole number. Type a whole number of shares, one or more.
• There are not enough shares for sale. A quarter of every railroad always stays with the public, so you can never buy the whole of one. The panel says how many can be bought now, or that none can.
• Not enough money in that purse. The sentence gives both figures: the balance, and what the shares cost. Pick the other money, or buy fewer.
• You are selling more than you hold. The panel says how many you own, and whether it means you or your railroad.

One refusal comes only after you press. If your railroad is in receivership, the game refuses a purchase from Your railroad's money, and the answer is printed under the buttons: the court is selling assets, not buying shares. Your own money can still buy, and selling is still allowed.

If the game does not answer, the panel says so and does not claim that nothing happened. Check your shares and your money before you try again, so you do not buy twice.

Your railroad can also buy back its own shares from the public, with a separate button on your own page. Those shares are retired, which leaves every other holder with a larger part of the railroad.

Dividends

Once a game month, a railroad that made money pays a dividend. It is half of what the month left in the bank. A railroad that spent its takings on track or stations has little left, and may pay nothing.

The dividend is split between everyone who holds shares, in proportion to how many each holds. Each holder's part goes into that holder's own money:

• shares you hold personally pay into Your own money;
• shares your railroad holds pay into Your railroad's money;
• the public's part leaves the game.

No dividend is paid by a railroad that is in receivership or has no stations, or that does not have the cash to pay it. Your railroad's page shows Dividends received and Dividends paid over the recent past.

Control

More than half of a railroad's shares lets you take it over. The shares count whether you hold them personally or through railroads you run.

Every other railroad's page has a Take control button, even if you hold none of its shares. Until you hold more than half it is greyed, and the line under it says what you hold, for example You hold 0% of the register, and how many more shares a majority needs. While the railroad is in receivership it says the court runs the road until the estate is discharged.

When you take control, the owner you replace keeps every share and keeps drawing dividends on them. They lose only the right to give orders.

This is why the founder's 15% matters. You start by running the railroad without owning most of it, and buying shares is how you make that safe.