Instructions

The playground market has certain tendencies. If you know these, you might be able to buy your mom a bigger present:

Expensive toys

Toys that sell for more than $1.00 have equal chances of rising in value, dropping in value, and getting rented out.

If they go up or down, it will be randomly by 5, 10, 15 or 20 cents.

If toys are rented out, it may be for one of those amounts, or it may be more:

• Higher-priced toys are more likely to go for more.
• Toys that have just gone up are more likely to go for more, according to the size of the increase.
• Among toys that rented out the previous day, the smaller the last rent was, the more it might be the next day.

Note: no matter what, the chance of actually getting rent is always one in three.

Cheap toys

Toys that sell for under $1.00 are never rented out - the demand just isn't there. Also, the chances of going up and down are not equal, according to the following rules, based on the amount of a toy's last movement in price:

• 5 cents: Quite likely to keep moving in the same direction.
• 10 cents: Somewhat likely to keep moving in the same direction.
• 15 cents: Somewhat likely to reverse direction.
• 20 cents: Quite likely to reverse direction.

Note: these are not guarantees, it is still very possible that toy prices will go against these tendencies, so you could get burned.