Catching a runaway leader

I hope the design of 18GB avoids the effect in which one player gets an early lead which nobody else can catch. I am fairly confident that if a company starts strong, it can face sufficient challenges in the middle and late games that other companies may be better investments.  The need to raise cash for new trains, the potential of routes being blocked, and the possibility of share price falling from hostile sales (particularly before the company converts) can all help to pull a leading company back, while the multiple jumps on the stock market may make other companies more attractive investments.

I am a little anxious that the same may not be true if a player manages to stake out an early lead.  With good play, someone who has earned more from revenues and the stock exchange will often be able to shift their investment into new companies.  If the early lead is too strong, I’m worried that the other players may not be able to catch them.

There are some ways to pull back a leader.  One is the classic tactic of depressing the price of stock they hold by selling shares in those companies.  It’s not clear whether this threat is sufficient, given that:

1. the sale of shares may give a director the chance to buy over the normal 60% limit, #
2. the depressed value might be regained by multiple stock jumps and
3. the price only drops for every 20% sold by a non-director 

I often see players hanging on to minority holdings in successful companies, for fear of falling even further behind; I’m not sure whether this is the right play but if it is, the consequence is that there is one fewer way for pulling back the leading player.

So one further change that I am considering is as follows:

• Until the Grey Phase, all sales of stock drop the Share Price one space for every share sold, instead of every 20%. 
• From the start of the Grey Phase until the first time that a 6X train is removed at the end of an Operating Round, a sale of a Company’s shares by a player who is not the Director of the Company will reduce the Share Price one space for every 20% of the Company’s shares sold - as in the current rules.
• After a 6X train is removed at the end of an Operating Round, sales of a Company’s shares by a player who is not the Director of the Company will not affect the Share Price.