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GTA V: How To Short Stocks And Tips To Become A Billionaire

This article is over 11 years old and may contain outdated information

The most interesting thing Rockstar Games added in Grand Theft Auto V is “Stock Market”. But many players are unaware of how to make use of it to their advantage. Now here is a quick guide detailing how to short out stocks in Grand Theft Auto V and also make profit out of it via any of Lester’s assassination mission.

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GTA 5 Stock MarketFor those who are unaware of, very often Lester will have an assassination mission for GTA V players (for example: Assassination of LiveInvader CEO and many alike). It is possible for GTA V players to make a HUGE sum of profit off these missions, for example after LifeInvader CEO Assassination mission that firm’s stock will take a massive hit, and so players could short its stock to make a massive profit (sometimes this profit runs into BILLION of DOLLARS).

Now here is the guide on how to make a profit via this method:

When Lester gives you a mission (it will mostly be an assassination mission against CEO’s), he normally says something stock related. Invest in the opposing companies stock, and once Lester says something stock related, cancel the mission (if you want ALL characters to invest) and make that stock purchase. The stock you bought will sky-rocket, and allow you to make millions and sometime billions of GTA$.

MORE HIDDEN DETAILS ON THIS BELOW:

Missions

When Lester gives you a mission, he normally says something stock related. The most obvious of which are assassination missions against CEO’s. Invest in the opposing companies stock! If you want all characters to invest you can either:

  • Save the game in a seperate save slot before taking the mission, and as soon as you know which company to invest in, load up that save and make your investments
  • Complete the mission and THEN make the investments on each character, QUICKLY!

The stocks will update not long after, a sleepsave or two should make the change happen. As I’m playing the game nice and slow and taking in all it has to offer, if someone can post up what stocks to purchase for each mission (please use spoiler tag!) that’d be great

  • Assassination Mission #1 – Hotel Assassination (invest in Betta Pharmaceuticals on Bawsaq)
  • Assassination Mission #2 – The Multi-Target Assassination (invest in Debonaire Tobacco on LCN)
  • Assassination Mission #3 – The Vice Assassination (invest in iFRUIT BAWSAQ)
  • Assassination Mission #4 – The Bus Assassination
  • Assassination Mission #5 – The Construction Assassination (invest in Goald Coast Development on LCN)

Missions Misc/FAQ

When Lester refers to pure Alpha in the very first mission, it actually means nothing in terms of stocks in the game. I have watched the markets after completing the mission and the only one that has changed dramatically is the target company

Below is the list of LCN Stock Market Opposing Companies:

  • CoolBeans – BeanMachine
  • Burgershot – Up-An-Atom
  • Clucking Bell – TacoBomb
  • FlyUS – AirEmu
  • GoPostal – PostOP
  • Bilkington – DollarPills
  • Pisswasser – Logger
  • MazeBank – BankOfLiberty
  • Redwood – Debonaire
  • Slaughter, Slaughter & Slaughter – Bullhead
  • RadioLosSantos – WorldwideFM
  • eCola – Raine

In short, invest in one of the company and deliberately do things which will cause harm to opposing/arch-rival company, for example buy FlyUS stock, and then go to the airport and destroy some AirEmu planes to make FlyUS stock go down.

Read below More TIPS/TRICKS/INFORMATION on GTA V Stock Market

Bawsaq (Bawsaq Minisite)
This is the online market, “influenced” on what players are doing globally, it is wise to buy stocks in weapon, ammunition, phone & car companies early (as well as any companies that just see decline and now gain), as it would be safe to assume that the companies are primarily influenced by GTAO purchases

Some stocks are over-ridden by offline events (Lesters first assassination mission being one of them)

LCN

Offline market, based on in game events including:

  • Destroying company vehicles (See Snuff Investments) – Could be linked, could be random, there’s a mixed bag
  • Killing company employees (See Snuff Investments) – Could be linked, could be random, there’s a mixed bag
  • Missions

Snuff Investments

Pretty much de-bunked for now so I’m going to spoiler it out, if you want to explore the theory, take a look and make timed stock results, reload and go on a killing/destruction spree and record again

By taking out vehicles and employees, you can drop the stock prices of that company, whilst also seeing a rise in the opposing company. You can play this one of two ways (or both!)

  • Buying stocks in the opposing company and killing/destroying the target companies assets then selling your shares in the opposing company
  • Destroying/Killing target company assets to drop the market price, buying low and then waiting for the re-settlement of stocks and selling

Other Misc Information

  • Company vehicles are mostly found on the highways/industrial areas in the morning and evening.
  • To find the HQ of a company follow one of its vehicles, and then note its location/take pictures on the GTAV Manual map tool and post it up there
  • It may be possible to affect coffee chain stocks by killing people drinking that brand (unconfirmed)

Company Headquarters

Obviously not all will have HQ’s as some will only be affected by in game events/missions rather than snuffing

Random Encounters

  • Whilst in free roam in South Los Santos, a man has his push-bike stolen, if you get it back to him he will tell you he owns ARK animal chain and a few days later will give you a substantial number of shares in the company for free! Confirmed with Michael & Franklin
  • A random ped mission to take someone to the airport (found near the tunnel on the Interstate road heading north to the Bay in the western area of the map), as a reward gives stock advice on what to purchase, he says buy it now!

Specifics & Speculation

At the moment, Bawsaq is a grey area. Due to the way the game over-rides certain stocks. We do know that it is linked to the larger GTA community via social club, so it could related to actual game stats or “hidden” stats that R* farm. Without GTA Online being…err Online, we can’t say for sure how much of an impact stats have. Although it would be safe to assume that the stocks that keep dropping are based on GTAO purchases (phones/weapons/vehicles etc.)
If you have solid information on anything Bawsaq related, please share!

  • Buying/Selling stocks seem to have an affect on the share price (which is true to real life) and could open up a great stock scam with buying a large amount to send the price up and then reselling, needs further investigation/proofing
  • Stock naturally fluctuates day to day by small amounts, which is good for shifting trades. Find a stock that works for you!
  • Pay attention to news / radio about stock info
  • Link your PSN/Xbox account to R*SC to get access to more stocks (if someone could take a snap of these stocks before linking their account that would be GREAT, we can see which stocks are linked then…and it is highly likely these are related to GTAO/Not ones affected by storyline)

ALSO READ OUR GUIDE: How to Make $1.5 Billion or more in Lester’s Assassination Missions


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