The Monopoly Stock Exchange Add-On Is the Only Way to Play

The Monopoly Stock Exchange Add-On Introduced six dividend paying stocks to the classic board game. The more shares you owned of one of the companies, up to a maximum of five shares, the more dividends you collected.

In 1936, Parker Brothers released an add-on to the popular Monopoly board game called the Stock Exchange.  Although the core Monopoly game had two asset classes – real estate and a few common stocks in the form of the four railroads and two utility companies – the Stock Exchange add-on brought the experience to a new level, introducing different dynamics to game play.  

Personally, I much prefer the Stock Exchange inclusive version of Monopoly to the regular game itself.  Collecting dividends, along with rents, as opposed to just getting free money from Free Parking, seems far more interesting to me.  (Actually, I hate getting free money on Free Parking since it is against the official rules and introduces too much liquidity into the game, making it last longer than normal, but the rest of the family demands the concession so I give in to peer pressure.)

How the Monopoly Stock Exchange Add-On Works

The Monopoly Stock Exchange Add-On lets players buy shares of blue chip stocks and collect dividends in addition to the real estate rents from the regular properties.

It isn’t hard to re-create the classic Monopoly Stock Exchange Add-On at home.  Here are the rules:

• The Free Parking space is transformed into the Stock Exchange by placing a tile of the same size over the square
• “Advance to Stock Exchange” cards are added to Community Chest and Chance; each pile receives 2 cards, or 4 total.
• Whenever you land on the Stock Exchange, you have the opportunity to buy one (1) share of any of six different companies: Motion Pictures, Allied Steamships, National Utilities, General Radio, United Railways, and American/Acme Motors.  If you decline the opportunity to buy a share of stock, the right goes to auction and the highest bidder pays for the right to buy a share of his or her choosing.
• Each company has only 5 shares of stock outstanding and for sale in the entire game.  You can only buy one share at a time when your token lands on the Stock Exchange space.  Once all five (5) of a company’s shares have been bought in full, no additional shares can be issued.  If you’ve purchased 4 shares of Motion Pictures and an opponent buys 1 share of Motion Pictures, you are out of luck.  You’ll have to trade with your opponent if you want to own all 5.
• Whenever any player lands on the Stock Exchange, you collect dividends based upon the stocks you own.  Using the chart below, if you owned 5 shares of Allied Steamships and 1 share of General Radio, you’d get a dividend of $288 (because $275 + $13 = $288).  

The Dividend Payout Table for the Monopoly Stock Exchange Add-On

Here is an easy-to-remember dividend payout table for your reference if you want to add the Monopoly Stock Exchange Add-On to your family game night.  It’s simple.  Every time you landed on the Stock Exchange space, you’d have the option of buying a share of stock.  If you picked National Utilities, you’d pay $120.  There would be four remaining shares of National Utilities left because every company can only have five shares outstanding in the entire game.  Whenever any player landed on the space, again, you’d collect a $12 dividend.  If you owned all of the shares, you’d collect a $300 dividend.  

The best part?  You can get Monopoly Stock Exchange Add-On for free by downloading two or three PDF files that a generous artist put together.  Or, if you have any Photoshop skills, you could create the stock certificates, stock exchange space, community chest, and chance cards yourself.  I don’t understand why Parker Bros. or Hasbro doesn’t include it as a routine part of the game.  It’s only a few extra pieces of paper and makes it far more interesting.    

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