In 2008, Mike Merrill became the first publicly traded person — selling shares of himself and letting shareholders vote on his life decisions. 18 years of trading data and 300+ votes later, here's what the data says about the project's health.
The closing price of one share of Mike from IPO to today, with major media events annotated. The 2013 Wired cover story triggered a 10x price spike.
Monthly trade count and unique participants. Early bursts around IPO and annual events, with periodic surges as new shareholders discover the project.
Each bubble is a shareholder vote. Size shows how many shares participated, color shows comment engagement. Hover for details.
Comments per vote, showing both total comments and unique commenters. The most engaged votes spark real debate.
Days between consecutive votes. Long gaps signal dormancy; tight clusters show an active season. The median gap is just 9 days.
Every open offer, stacked into a depth chart: bids accumulate from the best bid ($4.25) downward, asks from the best ask ($4.98) upward. A single 529.8-share wall sits at $5. Asks above $20 are cut off — the aspirational tail runs all the way to $1,500 a share.
The 20 largest of 1,406 shareholders. The top three alone control over 6,200 shares. Ownership is a long tail: most shareholders hold just a handful of shares, and even the site's own market-maker bot has accumulated a position (rank 50).