This may be the one market where every trader is rooting for a crash.

At the new Reserve Bar Stock Exchange in the City of London’s “Square Mile” financial district, drink prices swing up and down according to supply and demand, sending thirsty City workers on a roller-coaster ride in their hunt for the best-priced bender.

With its real-time exchange screens, rapidly fluctuating prices and secondary markets, it has the feel of a trading floor, without the unnerving risk of a market tumble. The worst-case scenario — or best, if you will — occurs when drink quotes climb too rapidly, triggering a “market crash.” This results in cheap booze all around: The market plunges between 35% and 40%, putting drink prices well below their prior intraday lows.

“The more you buy, the more you can push a market crash, and then you can really indulge,” finance director Marianne Magnin explained. Having previously specialized in options at what was then Price Waterhouse and is now known as PwC, Magnin is no stranger to the finance sphere and understands the ins and out of market movements.

Bar owner Alan Grant, however, is still getting used to the financial lingo and strategies, revealing that he has no previous experience in the industry. Instead, he got the idea for Reserve Bar after he hosted Uber’s London launch party at one of his other venues and ended up sitting next to the taxi app’s CEO and founder, Travis Kalanick, at a dinner later that evening.

Prices change rapidly at Reserve Bar, so you have to stay alert to grab the best deal.

“I was fascinated by his vision of the future — the idea of how technology seems to integrate into everyday bits,” Grant said. “So I started thinking about that principle in my own sector: bars. I have never been involved in the City [London’s financial center] and only operated in the West End, so this was a leap of faith. But I think [the people employed in] the City, as a demographic, are early adopters when it comes to technology.”

So far, that assertion seems to have held true. It is still early days for Reserve Bar — it opened in June — but it seems to be resonating with the target audience of traders and bankers seeking to test out strategies in a lower-risk environment.

And it is easy to see how they can get totally into it. With price changes flashing before your eyes, your goal might be locking in a classic mojito at the £4 ($6.25) intraday low, snapping up an Amstel beer at £2.50 or securing a round of Jaegermeister shots before they spiral out of control. If you’re feeling extravagant, go for the signature Black Tuesday drink — a refreshing mash-up of Chambord, bourbon, strawberry, lime, mint and ginger ale — before the fancy traders leave their corporate fortresses and venture out for a night on the town.

The signature Black Tuesday is a nod to the Wall Street crash of 1929. Saabira Chaudhuri

Really, though, in this competitive atmosphere, what you don’t want is to be paying more than your neighbor at the bar. No, you want to buy your tipples at rock-bottom prices. That is why you need a strategy, perhaps like that of Carl Marrota, a private trader who works around the corner.

“ ‘A guy recently bought 10 shots and then went down to another table to try to sell them with a 50-pence profit.’ ” — Alan Grant, Reserve Bar Stock Exchange

“I buy on the dips of my selected drinks,” he said. “I rate my five favorite drinks in order, and then I choose them according to how they fluctuate in price during the night. I might be slightly biased if I really want a drink, and, if I’m really drunk, the strategy goes out the window.”

For other patrons, the strategizing extends beyond personal consumption, with some scouring the marketplace for buyers as soon as their drinks have been poured or mixed, bar owner Grant said. “The trick is to buy low and sell high. A guy recently bought 10 shots and then went down to another table to try to sell them with a 50-pence profit. So, in that sense, there is a secondary market,” he said.

The game is set to get more complex later in the summer, when Grant is looking to introduce a “futures” trading system under which customers will be able to lock in drink prices ahead of time. If you’re planning heavy consumption at the weekend, when prices traditionally are higher, you can buy your drinks ahead of time, at a lower price, via the bar’s trading app. Of course you’ll be taking on the risk that, come Saturday, you may not be able to make it to Reserve Bar after all. Or the oodles of tequila shots that seemed like such a brilliant idea on Tuesday may no longer hold the same appeal.

“We really wanted to create a forum like a trading floor,” Grant said. “The idea is you get a chance of beating the market.”

How to play the market at Reserve Bar