Mike Sroka appeared on FOX Business for an interview about OneSeason! Check it out!

Mike Sroka is back for a SuperBowl edition of Ask Mike! exclusively at the OneSeason Nation! If you have a question you’d like to ask Mike, please send your questions to bullpup@oneseasonnation.com!

Q: Does participation in an IPO (meaning sheer number of people who requested) impact the maximum percentage a person can get of that IPO? Does it impact the total number of shares that are released? Both? We are wondering if people who think they are on the bubble and cancel their requests are only giving the people at the front of the line a higher % of the shares?

A:  The total number of people who requested a particular IPO is not directly contemplated in the allocation process currently.  The total number of SOIs that are requested is one of the data points used as an indication of the current demand.  We want to ensure that IPOs are allocated to a relatively broad group so the number of SOIs requested by individuals in the time-stamped line-up will influence the max percentage.  Canceling requests will only improve the likelihood of someone behind you receiving an allocation.

A:  There is no middleman in our system like a market maker or specialist, rather it is a hyperactive matching platform that matches overlapping orders and provides best execution available for both parties.  In order to do so, the system queries the outstanding orders and where there is overlap it takes the highest Buy offer and Lowest Sell offer and averages between them.  This balances the interest of buyers and sellers executing the order within specifications.

A:  It was pretty interesting watching these two players fly up the IPO list.  FITZ was exactly the same, BIGB was the same process although implemented a little differently I guess.  While the metrics indicated release of new IPO (for BIGB), by the time we were able to get our team ready for it, the market was in decline (Red).  Previously we have issued players when the metrics indicated release of new IPO and the market was experiencing  an uptick (Green).  Given that the metrics looked good to go and so many people wanted him available for the Super Bowl we decided to Issue.

A:  Yes, it has been designed and will likely be implemented in the near future.

A:  We see the core of our company being the trading platform that enables and unifies all kinds of other activity.  The biggest advantage of application/open platform models is that you harness lots of creative minds and the market/userbase determines the content that adds value to the experience.

A: We do not expect to add any new sports in the next 3 months as we are focused on building out the features and functionality.

A:  Thanks!  Good suggestion from you guys…keep em coming.  The IPO List updates in real time.

A: Our Team is roughly the size of an NBA Roster and we have added approximately 2 people/month since launch.

Session 6 of Ask Mike is here for your enjoyment. Thanks to OneSeason and Mike Sroka for continuing this program for the Nation. Thanks to Boonflop for gathering the questions. Session 7 to come soon. Get your questions in to Boonflop in the forums!

Thekid  Will there ever be risk limits placed when entering orders? For example, you can only place orders with a limit price of +/- 25 cents current best bid or best offer to prevent manipulation and trading mistakes.

Answer:  Order confirmations should prevent mistakes when placing an order.  We do not want to interfere with willing buyers and sellers transacting by putting limits on the orders that can be placed.  This seems to be consistent with how other marketplaces (market systems) operate.  Hopefully the recent changes to the Trade Orders screen improves the transparency and usability.

2. Tdpenny2000 — Multiple part question: Why was PORT released next day as opposed to the 2 day wait we have seen with all the other IPOs? What determines what time during the day the IPO is actually released (not announced)?

Answer:  There is no set time period for when IPO’s will be released relative to the Notice of Upcoming Issue.  We want to balance providing users with enough time to put in their indication of interest (request to obtain SOIs) while not freezing funds for longer than necessary.

We started out announcing the time of day an IPO would be released but this caused a massive spike in activity (lots of concurrent users hitting refresh) causing poor system performance.  We now release IPO’s at an unspecified time when our development team can monitor the release and ensure the issuance occurs properly.

3. DrDread — HHHHmMMMmmmm.. Maybe a question on a Quick update for Canada and how it’s going? Maybe ask him if he expects more Hockey IPO’s with More Canadians on the site and will it be more than NFL (since no one beating the NBA.)

Answer:  I do not have any update on the timing of potentially expanding into the Canadian market.  As mentioned previously, operating in new markets requires a lot of work relating to legal research, payment processing and fraud prevention.  During our first 12 weeks of operation we have not been able to complete this work yet.

4.New2Boston — Is someone is working on improving graphing?

Answer:  YES!  We have begun tackling some of the front end clean-up items and you should see improvements to the graphs shortly.

5.TdPennyWhat is the purpose of the reserved cash remaining reserved until the shares are sold?
Answer:  The purpose behind the entire IPO process is to create a flat system that encourages active use of the site and provides everyone with an equal opportunity to participate.  IPOs should be special but must also stimulate activity in the secondary market.  Users do not actually pay to obtain IPOs but this is balanced with potential opportunity costs associated with having funds not available for other purposes.  This is consistent with the above mentioned goals as it spreads out the allocation of IPOs and creates an incentive to sell into the secondary market.

6.TDPenny What is the typical day like for you guys?

Answer:  I think that I speak for everybody here when I say this is our dream job.  That being said, getting this company humming along requires significant commitment and I could not be prouder of our team and all of their hard work so far.  One of the many stimulating things about this experience is that there is no typical day.  We have a small team and a TON of work to do so everybody has to wear a lot of hats.  Operating a new market that is open 15 hours a day, 6 days a week and much of the development occurs after market hours and on Saturdays means office is home.

7. Biggins Wht is ur guys thoughts on the negative pessimistic misleading untrue pyramid ponzi scheme crap that is polluting the OneSeason boards ask him that we know its not true but why they allow people to say all those false statements or try and scare people into leaving oneseason because its failing

Answer:  I think that we are going to have to start moderating the message boards as these false and misleading statements do not add value to the OneSeason community.  It has been our preference to allow users to interact as they please as long as it is not threatening or offensive.  We underestimated the amount of time and energy some folks are willing to commit to something that they apparently do not like.  This is unfortunate for them, we hope that they find what they are looking for but will not facilitate this activity in the future.

8. Slappy ask him what he thinks about all of the people who are coming up with all of their ways and ideas and theories about rescuing OneSeason from the coming apocolypse. does 1season need saving?

Answer:  We always want to hear suggestions from our users and want to move forward with the best system possible.  We launched OneSeason 12 weeks ago and are just getting started.  There is a ton of stuff designed that we are working to implement.  The only way we know how to accomplish these things is in phases (build, open, tweak, repeat).  We are thrilled with the progress we have made thus far and are way ahead of where we expected to be right now.  We are hopeful that folks enjoy the current functionality and will be patient as the platform is built out.  I encourage everyone to review the evolution of other popular systems for reference frame on the necessary time associated with building out a successful product.

9. BB  some people believe that a flood of new user signup is not a top priority for you guys at this time. is this true? if so, how far out do you project that driving huge amounts of traffic to the site like we saw in october, will be your number 1 priority?

Answer:  Our top priority is building out a great product.  As mentioned above, we still have a lot of work to do just to implement the things that have been designed.  We want to stay disciplined and follow our initial plan: build and stabilize trading system, improve social features and open functionality to 3^rd parties, attract content producers to use the platform, attract users to a compelling offering.  Please note that the early spikes in traffic were viral (user and media driven not company driven) and attracted a lot of folks that do not usually consume online sports entertainment.  Ideally, we would like to achieve moderate, steady growth with users that want to be a part of a new, exciting way to enjoy sports online.

Straight from Blog Talk radio and OneSeason Trader. Hosted by Knup and Bullpup. This was in my opinion one of the best episodes we’ve seen. Check it out!