INSTRUCTIONS FOR SETTING UP A MARKETSCAPE EXPERIMENT

Try to avoid making mistakes while entering information on the setup pages, because going back may cause problems or at least require you to reenter a whole page of information.

On the first webpage:
1) Choose "Create New Parameter File"
˜2 Select a source directory - usually the newest directory available
3) Set the experiment start date and time - a delay code in the software will automatically start the experiment at this date and time if you run the setup immediately  (see "setup" below)
4) Enter your name in the "Experimenters Name" box
Click "Select Source and Parameters" button

On the second webpage:
1) The First Subject ID should be set to 101 then set the Last Subject ID to allow the number of participants desired.  If you allow many participants this can slow down the process of loading private markets and cause delays for people participating in the experiment so you should set this number to the maximum you want/expect to participate in the experiment.
˜2 Resources used in experiment include the currency used and the list of assets traded, delimited by spaces.  By convention this is typed in lower case letters.  Only use letters, since other characters such as the underscore are used internally and cause problems.  
3) In the "Public Markets" box you should include the names of all the public markets, delimited by spaces.  By convention, the name of each market is the name of the asset traded in that market, typed in upper case.  Once again, only use letters, since other characters may cause problems.  
4) Identify the number of "types" to include in the experiment - you can also have sub-types of each type.

a) "Types" have different inventories of currency and assets, different loans and different private markets.
b) "Sub-types" have different order sets in their private markets.

On the resources page:
1) Enter an amount of assets and currency for the experimenter.  The experimenter will sell or buy units from the participants in their private markets.  Remember this amount has to be sufficient to cover all the orders that people submit from their private markets.
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2 Observer 1 is just an ID for anyone who wants to look into the experiment without participating.  Thus, the observer is generally not given any assets, loans or currency.
3) For each type of participant you need to enter the amount of assets and currency that they start with.  This needs to be determined based on what behavior you are expecting from the different types.
4) You also have the option of giving people loans.  At the end of the experiment this loan must be repaid from the money participants have earned.  It is not advisable to give someone a loan without providing any assets initially.  The entry blank for loans doesn't do anything except mention to the subjects that the money is a loan.  Hence you must still include initial money of the same amount when giving a loan.
5) Under public markets, you have to identify the asset traded in the different market and the currency used for these trades.  For simplicity the market and resource traded in that market should be the same.
6) Multiple order sets allow you to change the orders that participants receive in their private market - this allows market shocks.  Different order sets also allow you to vary the period length (see order sets below).  You can enter as many order sets as you want for the experiment - more order sets means more data entry.
7) Under private markets you can identify the assets which different types of participants are allowed to trade with the experimenter.  These must be associated with one of the resources that you identified originally.  They should be entered as "Private*" where the * is to be replaced with the resource traded - by convention, the p and the resource should be capitalized (i.e. PrivateX).
8) You can now choose to allow subtypes.  As mentioned previously, subtypes have the same endowment of resources, loans, and private markets but different order sets in their private markets.
9) Click "Submit Part 2"

Order Sets page:
1) Enter the number of periods and length of periods in each of the order set.
2) Under Private Markets, enter the resource to be traded in each private market - again for simplicity this usually corresponds exactly with the name of the market.
3) As payment enter the resource to used as currency in the different private markets.
4) Under private orders, you need to enter the orders that will be placed in the private markets of each type and subtype for each of the different order sets.  This allows you to set their "value" for different assets. Note that the experimenter will be placing these orders.  "Buy" means that the experimenter will place a buy order in the private book.  
The format of the order should be a space-delimited list of prices indicating the price that the experimenter will accept for each unit.  For example, if the experimenter sells the first unit at 35, the second unit at 40, the third at 45, the fourth at 50, and the fifth at 55, then you should enter "35 40 45 50 55".
5) Click "Submit Part 3"

a) For new instructions, create new html files and save them  to "the appropriate locations" on eeps4 overwriting the default files.
b) To edit existing Instructions or Announcements just use a text editor and type any instructions you want.

General Notes:
All resources are carried over between periods.  This cannot be changed through this interface yet.  
You cannot set-up production functions through this interface yet.

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