Wall Street Raider
One tape. One attempt. Every Monday.
A free ranked run that everybody plays on identical terms. Same authored market, same starting capital, same clock speed, one cold attempt. It takes a single sitting, it does not touch your main empire, and no purchase can improve your score.
Open the app to see this week's challenge
The rules, and why each one exists
Everyone gets the same tape
The week's market is authored, not generated per player — the same fundamentals, the same price path, the same news, in the same order. Nobody gets an easier draw, so the leaderboard measures decisions rather than luck.
Speed is pinned to the free tier
Ranked runs lock the clock at free-tier speed. A Pro subscription cannot buy more decisions per minute, which is the mechanism that keeps the board honest rather than a promise that it is.
One cold attempt
You get one ranked run, played without prior knowledge of the tape. No retries, no reroll. Reading a market you have never seen is the skill being tested.
Friends and percentile, not a global top 100
Results show where you placed among your Game Center friends and what percentile you hit. There is no global scoreboard for anyone to farm, and no leaderboard prize to chase with a bot.
Your empire is safe
The challenge runs outside your save slots. Your main game is frozen while you play and untouched afterwards, win or lose.
The archive is practice, not rank
Past weeks can be replayed by Pro players unranked. Practising an old tape never affects a live standing, because the live week is always one you have not seen.
Why this exists. A sandbox economy has no shared reference point — two players' results are not comparable because they never faced the same market. Fixing the tape for a week creates the one thing a simulation normally cannot have: a fair comparison. It also gives the game a reason to be opened on a Monday.
What a run actually looks like
Each week is authored around a scenario with a specific pressure — a liquidity squeeze, a dispersion trade beneath a flat index, a refinancing wall, a sector melt-up. The brief is visible when you start; the resolution is not. You are scored on where your net worth lands against the starting capital when the clock runs out.
Because the underlying simulation is the full one, everything is available: the order book, short selling with its borrow costs, options if you hold Pro, corporate actions on companies you take control of. A week authored around a credit event rewards knowing what interest coverage implies. A week authored around a consolidation wave rewards knowing how a tender offer resolves.
Connection, offline play, and Game Center
- The challenge needs a short connection once, to fetch the week's tape. After that the run continues offline.
- Submitting a ranked score goes through Apple Game Center. If you are not signed in, you can still play the week — you just will not appear on the friends board.
- Nothing about the run is uploaded beyond the score you choose to submit. Saves stay on device.