The Bull & the Bear

Local Zoning 11-2 is the 11th district in Adept Homini's Zone 2, but is colloquially referred to as "Caishen." It is by far one of the busiest districts in all of the capital Zones (Zones 1-6).

The name comes from the Caishen Trade Center, a series of skyscrapers in District 11. Most of them function as business parks/offices for various companies. However, CTC3 - a relatively modest building compared to the rest of Caishen - is home to the Axew Local Stock Exchange (ALSE), Erios's largest local exchange.

Trading in Hydrus
Initially, trading throughout the system had the primary logistical issue of communication. Since communications were delayed between population centres (Terra, Acwai, Erios, Gauus), remote trading between these planets was more or less impossible given the circumstances. An Adeptian trader buying Terran securities could be blocked out if the exchange closed before they could receive the trade made 4 hours before. Traders could even lose money due to the significant delay, if prices were to fluctuate massively during the trade's transit. Overall, this meant that if you lived closer to an exchange's datacenter, you gained a significant advantage.

This was solved by centralizing markets in trade hubs on all planets. Following the HTM time standard* - trades would be made locally, then sync in batches before prices updated. While the solution was not flawless, it greatly minimized errors and inconsistencies when trading.

For Erios in particular, the Regency* would establish the Axew Local Stock Exchange in Zone 2.

2798 System Wipeout
During the Regency term of the InCos* in the 28th century, the ALSE crashed after competing trading platforms caused extreme market volatility, which was subsequently followed by market collapse.

To preface, algorithmic trading and market science had become extremely complex and sophisticated, to the point where human traders were essentially relegated to an oversight role instead of actively trading. This had gotten to the extent where, for the most part, traders couldn't precisely understand what their systems were doing anymore, only trusting that it had been doing the right thing.

In 27XX, regulators began to notice odd, correlating behaviour between the platforms of major trading firms. They went on to audit these platforms, but due to the proprietary nature of their models, audits were extremely shallow. Trading continued like normal, however a few market analysts begin publishing papers warning people about an impending crash. This was largely ignored or written off by firms.

Behind the scenes, these trading models, which aren't intelligent or sentient, "realized" independently that mutual restraint would be profitable in the long run. Slowly, major platform trades began to seem rather cooperative, moving prices together. If there was a model that didn't follow the pattern, the pseudo-hivemind would tank the stock, seemingly as a warning. 

A year later, an Acwaiian exchange entity introduced a new agent to trade within the ALSE, and began making trades that went against the algorithm. The initial response by Adeptian agents were to slightly tank the stock, however it seemingly influenced no change with the Acwaiian model. The agents then tanked another stock held by the Acwaiian model. Then another. This triggered a chain reaction, which eventually led agents outside of the pseudo-hivemind to panic-sell shares in self-preservation, which then broke the hivemind objective and caused the culprit major trading platforms to panic-sell. Prices began to drop steeply, faster than oversight can react to. By the time trading halts had activated, the ALSE had not only wiped out, but had also affected markets on other planets. On a mass scale, almost 10x more value was lost compared to the 2028 recession*.

When it came time for investigation, no one knew who to point to. Firms were unaware of the agent collusion as their models were running as designed. The Acwaiian firm had briefly become a media enemy during the initial days of the recession, but was quickly dismissed as the events of the crash came to light. It wouldn't take long for investigators to realize that, in essence, there was no one they could legally point to as the culprit. Public backlash quickly turned to the InCos, who were stuck in hot water as they tried to manage the aftermath.

Trading in Adept Homini
The InCos (and recently, the Globals*), over the span of a couple decades, began introducing legislation that significantly limited the capabilities of remote and algorithmic trading.

• Agents now require a named officer to be explicitly responsible for anything it does.

• Larger trades have to be verified in person by a licensed trader.

• While a rare occurence beforehand, competing firms can no longer share training data, infrastructure, or vendors.

• Regulators must be able to inspect and have access to absolutely everything about an agent come time for an audit.

These changes would form the basis of ALSE's current situation; the return of the physical trading floor, which the Regency felt was a very trustworthy solution. With this, trading was now manageable as exchange boards can better control the flow. For firms, it would now be easier to assign floor traders and remain extremely local to the ALSE, meaning that the real estate in Caishen had become quite valuable.

The idea of mandating in-person trading had also later expanded to Acwai.

As the volume of people physically inside the ALSE was going to skyrocket, the exchange expanded CTC3 downwards, and became the CTC's only sub-ground access building. The trading floor itself is massive, filled with trading posts and floor brokers, whilst massive screens adorn the higher areas. Foot traffic during peak hours can get busy, and the trading floor can occasionally overcrowd. If this occurs, then the lobbies of CTC2, CTC4, and CTC5 are equipped with infrastructure that temporarily transforms them into proxy-floors. Should those not be an option, for whatever reason, the central CTC plaza can also turn into a proxy-floor; however this measure has only been used once.

Notable presence in Caishen
As proximity to the ALSE is important for business, there are many points of interest located in Caishen. The most notable are:

• Greyview Cn.  —  Caishen Trade Center 1 & 2; various-tenant office towers

• Alder Cn.  —  Caishen Trade Center 3-5 & 7; ALSE, various-tenant office towers & ultra-wealth mixed-use

• 55 Alder Cn.  —  Offices for the Standard Bank of Borealia (Terra)

• 3 Camila Fj.  —  Anselm Tower; offices for the Anselm Bank of Adept & other corporations

• 8 Camila Fj.  —  Neumann Collective/F.G. Adept offices. Also serves as mixed-use for business partners

• 14 Camila Fj.  —  Private Reserve of the OE

• 26 Kei Cn.  —  Originally CTC6, but was later demolished due to a structural issue. The land was later sold and rebuilt into the Erios-Eventide Bank Tower; offices for the Eventide Bank (Acwai).

• 30 Kei Cn.  —  Caius Tower; mixed-use complex, hotel and offices