How do Lesters missions affect BAWSAQ?

Question

I've seen a few Google results on this on the internet but none are properly answered, so let's try and sort this.

First, the markets.

Now, as far as I'm aware, BAWSAQ is affected by the actions of people online, and LCN affects the single player story mode only.

On the first assassination mission for Lester, he says to buy stocks in Betta Pharmaceuticals, which is on the BAWSAQ market. I checked the stocks, and they were showing down 0.66%

I asked my friend and he said they were exactly the same price for him.

Now, I'm playing again today and they've gone up 32%

How can Lesters missions affect BAWSAQ stocks if they're the same for everyone online?

Answer 1

Okay, I figured this out.

It's right that before a Lester mission, your BAWSAQ stocks will be the same as the are for a friend.

For example, Betta Pharmaceuticals will show as 660.1 for both of you.

You then do the mission for Lester, and the shares drop to 268.4

However, for your friend they still show as 660.1

Eventually they will go back up to the original value

Answer 2

it would seem like the BAWSAQ works something like this(this is speculation based on forum lurking and my own experience):

When you log into the game, the game gets BAWSAQ stock info from the server to your local client. This server data is affected by other players actions. Then when you do missions with lester that affect BAWSAQ stock, the lester modification only affects your local BAWSAQ pricing.

It would seem like(even more speculative) that the only thing that affects the baseline BAWSAQ stock is the amount of shares sold and bought, so that ends up affecting the baseline price stored on the server side.

Hopefully this is even a bit lucid.