Better Know a Podcaster

 Each "Better Know a Podcaster" post details a member of the Rapid Fire team.

Hi, I'm Shelley. By day I'm an accountant, and by night, I'm still an accountant. As a result of being an accountant 24 hours a day, I tend to see the gaming world differently to Nick and Karl.

My main role here at Rapid Fire is to take care of the Totally Imaginary Portfolio. The TIP is a portfolio of 10,000 shares each of Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts Inc, THQ Inc, Take-Two Interactive, GameStop Corp, Ubisoft Entertainment SA and Perfect World Co.

So, here are the answers to the questions that I'm sure have been keeping you up at night:

Q. Why is the portfolio set up at 10,000 shares of each? Doesn't it make more sense to put an equal dollar amount into each share?

A. Yes. A lot more. But I didn't, because that would have involved working out how many of each share to buy, and dividing numbers by other numbers, and using a calculator. It just seemed like a bother.

Also, I would feel compelled to regularly rebalance the portfolio, and that sort of nitty gritty isn't going to interest 99% of our listeners.

Q. You talk about hypothetical profits. What about hypothetical trading costs and hypothetical capital gains tax?

A. I like talking about CGT as much as the next person. But then, the person sitting next to me is also an accountant. Once again, it fails the 99% rule. So I skip it.

Q. Why didn't you include X stock?

A. It would probably be faster to explain why I chose what I did. I chose Activision Blizzard because it is a behemoth that gets a lot of press. I chose Take-Two because it owns Australia's own 2K Australia. I chose EA because I've spent more hours playing the Sims than I spent studying for my degree. GameStop is our window into the retail sector, and Ubisoft and Perfect World add diversity, being from Europe and China respectively.

Why didn't I include any console makers? Because console makers tend to be highly diversified- the daily price movements of Microsoft are rarely affected by the Xbox. What we're looking for are companies that make their money from pure, unadulterated gaming.

Q. So how is the portfolio doing?

A. We bought in at a great time- most gaming stocks crashed in May due to a disappointing first quarter. So we got them cheap. As of the 4th of June, our portfolio is up 3%, or $30,000.

Shelley focuses on the business side of gaming, and takes a more formal tone than Nick and Karl, aside from all the fucking swearing. And no, she will not do your taxes.