Speculare

The game of speculation is one of the most popular and pervasive of all games known to humans. It took its name from the speculare, who stood at the back of a Roman ship during sea voyages. His job was to find good fishing areas. The game as we play it is as old as history. Joseph, in the Old Testament, noticed a seven-year cycle of good and bad harvests in ancient Egypt. He convinced the Pharoah to buy or tax away the excess on good years and warehouse it for lean years. He became immensely wealthy and influential because of his shrewd speculations.

Speculation combines chance and skill and includes elements of hunting, deception, cooperation, competition, creativity, rhythm, and physical strength - in short, all elements of games we played as children. Here is a brief outline of the game:

Object of Game: To make a profit by buying something at a low price and selling it at a high price.

Equipment: A phone or internet and money. For advanced players, a rented quote screen or quote.

The Board: An organised stock or commodity exchange such as the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) or the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The Play: Arrange with a member of the Board to buy and sell while the Board is open. You can do this on credit. Unless you are a member, you lose when you owe a member more than you have available to pay during the required time frame.

Strategy: Be careful to balance potential reward with risk. Most players lose, so if you find yourself part of the herd, chances are you should change your plan. Combine cooperation with colleagues and competition with opponents to gain the limited chips.

Purpose of Play: A popular 19th-century proverb says: “A child doesn’t play because he’s young. He’s young so he can play.” Infants are born helpless, but they learn for themselves how to survive in a world of competition and cooperative play. Nature gives us the rudiments for success but relies on play to focus, sharpen, and strengthen them for the vicissitudes we will meet within the game of life.

Indeed, play is so fundamental that the very language we use to describe it has its own syntax. As Huizinga points out:

Does this mean that the act of playing is of such a peculiar and independent nature as to lie outside the ordinary categories of action? Playing is not doing in the ordinary sense; you do not “do” a game as you “do” or “go” fishing, or hunting, or Morris-dancing, or woodwork - you “play” it.

Play is so basic, so fundamental to human nature, that the roots of culture grow in it: language, myth, ritual. “Now in myth and ritual,” Huizinga says, “the great instinctive forces of civilized life have their origin: law and order, commerce and profit, craft and art, poetry, wisdom and science. All are rooted in the primeval soil of play.”

The game is never easy. The people you play with and against have their own agendas. Sometimes, the only way you can achieve your agenda is by beating theirs. Their goal is to beat you. At other times, cooperation is the key to joint success.

Play is fundamental. It connects us to our humanity, to our culture and history, to the cycles of nature, where everything has its season, and every season returns in due course.