In the rules, if I read it correctly, it said that the exchange rate between British Pounds and the currency of a team's home nation would be set based on the exhange rates during the first 9 months of the challenge.

Assuming my interpretation is correct, what are the official conversion rates?

Thank you.

Be nice Paul! it's tough enough as it is! Can't we keep it right around at least 2000 USD
Hey what can I say!

Monroe

Paul,

Per ronw's question, are the Official Currency Conversion Rates posted somewhere for N-Prize? If they are, could you please post a link to them here? I have not been able to locate them. Thanks.

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Paul & Everyone,

Because I have been interested to know what the available budget is in US dollars, I have done some research to attempt to figure this out on my own. Here is the approach I have been using, for anyone who wishes to verify/research this.

I found the historical currency data at FT.com, but did not see a way to search that data for the high and low exchange rates, for an ad hoc time period. Perhaps I missed it? Not sure.


Over at OandA.com I found an historical exchange rate search capability that seems to work quite well.


OandA.com records their exchange rate data slightly differently, or have a different source, than FT.com -- so the numbers for any given day do not match exactly between OandA and FT. However, the OandA search capability makes it easy to narrow down from 9 months, to a couple weeks, when each exchange rate is at it's highest. Those couple weeks can then be searched at the FT.com site, to get 'official' exchange rates.

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First, I created a list of the relevant countries and currencies. I included all the counties from the currently listed N-Prize Teams: UK, US, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Ghana, Canada, and Poland.

I then added countries that were not on the list, but that Wikipedia lists as having put a rocket in orbit: Russia, Ukraine, France, Japan, China, Europe, India, Israel, and Iran. Even if no Team enters N-Prize from these countries, people there may be interested in learning about N-Prize -- so there may be PR value in listing the N-Prize budget in their national currencies.

And, as a generic comparison value, I added the exchange rate for Gold.

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Second, for each currency, I looked up its exchange rate with the British Pound (GBP) for 09 April 2008 through 09 January 2009, inclusive. I highlighted the dates for the top ten exchange rates for each currency. I then resorted the data, to see where those highlighted dates grouped together.

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Third, for each currency, I check the highlighted dates on FT.com -- plus a couple days before and after -- to find FT's best exchange rate.

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I completed both the First and Second steps for all the countries / currencies listed above. Since that took so much time, I have only completed the Third step for US Dollars. However, anyone else is welcome to perform the Third step for any or all of the remaining currencies, if they choose.

I will post my results from the Second and Third steps in separate posts.

Cheers,
Thom

(continued)
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For converting between US Dollars (USD) and British Pounds (GBP), OandA.com showed that 15–22 July 2008 and 19–20 April 2008 are the high-points in that exchange rate for the N-Prize time period.

I initially looked up the USD/GBP exchange rate on Google Finance. It lists 18 July 2008 as the high-point (for the N-Prize period), with an exchange rate of 1.998. This rate would set the N-Prize budget of 999.99 GBP at $1,997.98 USD.

OandA.com lists 16 July 2008 as the high-point, with an exchange rate of 2.0025. OandA lists this as GBP/USD, but I think they have it backwards. I think it is actually USD/GBP. This rate would set the N-Prize budget of 999.99 GBP at $2,002.48 USD.

I searched the historical data, day by day, on FT.com around the July 2008 and April 2008 time periods mentioned above. I am not certain I have found FT's highest USD/GBP rate listed for the N-Prize time period. But, the highest FT.com rate I have found so far is for 17 July 2008, with an exchange rate of 2.0069. This rate would set the N-Prize budget of 999.99 GBP at $2,006.88 USD.

Has anyone found a higher exchange rate for the N-Prize period in US Dollars?

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My findings for the other countries/currencies are still to come.

Thanks,
Thom

{ p.s. If there are errors in my findings, please feel free to point them out. I'm not a currency conversion expert, so it's entirely possible something here is incorrect. }

Wow! That's impressive, and good work.

No, I couldn't find a "search for highest rate" feature on the FT site either (I don't think there is one), and I simply trawled the rates day by day. I have not done this for all the currencies, since it's the entrants' responsibility to check this (and also, if truth be told, because I have been lazy).

If any teams feel they're getting close to budget, they'd be well advised to let me know, and I'm happy to double-check their numbers. The same, of course, goes for any queries on budget or other matters.

You also raise one important question - what to do for teams which are listed as "International" (there's only one at present). I hadn't considered this possibility. I think, in this case, that the choice of currency would correspond to the country from which the launch takes place. However, this always leaves open the possibility of abuse (if someone went to the trouble of building in one country, then launching from another where rates were better).

In the case of WikiSat, if it's a truly international effort, I would propose using the Euro as the "team currency" - anyone from WikiSat like to comment on this?

Best wishes,
Paul

Hi Thom,

Yes, that would work. Some degree of "internationalism" is catered for by accommodating currency exchanges (that is, a mechanism for teams to account for expenditure overseas), which I think ultimately comes to the same end-point. But your system makes sense and is clear.

It's just as well I didn't put up a challenge to build a time machine - the financial calculations would become a little more complex

All the best,
Paul

Just send us gold.

Gold is having a high-point last I checked... might be a good base currency if one needs expensive equipment...?

It seems to have increased in value vs. GBP about threefold in the past three years.
So if we can found a team in some country with gold-pegged currency, we can now spend the current equivalent of about 3000 GBP for what used to be 999.99 GBP at the competition's start.