Hollywood Stock Exchange Set To Launch In April

You can buy and sell actor or movie "stock" for virtual cash on the website Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX). Starting in April the company plans on letting you turn those movie performance predictions into real dollars. HSX filed with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission for approval as an active trading site in November 2008 and has just entered the final phase of regulatory review. Richard Jaycobs, president of HSX's parent company, said, "The number of people who visit movie theaters each year and form opinions about a film's success is in the tens of millions. We believe that's the reason the public response to this product has been very positive."

Comments

Re:What's the point

[DavidR1991]

It's about placing wagers on a film's performance, by the looks of it

Heckuva Job, Government

[longacre]

Online gambling = illegal

Trading intangible nonsense under the guise of a "commodity exchange" = cool!

Re:Heckuva Job, Government

[longacre]

Also, how is there any way this won't be rife with insider trading and other criminal activity? Movie production staff are not licensed/fingerprinted/sworn to secrecy the way execs at publicly traded companies are. Not to mention, how easy would it would be for organized crime to short sell a particular movie, and then make sure the star OD's or has an "accident" in the middle of production.

What do you own?

[Migraineman]

I'm confused. If this is a game, or strictly entertainment, why do they need to be registered with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission? If this is a real trading forum, what exactly do you own? May I expect a distribution from Angelina Jolie's next big blockbuster, because as a shareholder, I expect her first and only priority is to maintain and enhance shareholder value.

I didn't think it was legal to own a person. Maybe it's legal if you only own a small percentage of a person.

Re:What's the point

[Tacvek]

If they want to have a predictions market they can, others do exist, but please for the love of sanity do not call it a stock market, and don't use terms like stocks and bonds in the system except in cases where those words really apply.

I'm not sure what the correct term would be. Prediction market is the normal term, but that is not ideal.

It is not a spot commodities trading market, since in those cases you take delivery of the item, or in very few markets, the standard is for the seller to hold the item on your behalf, and while you can request delivery, it is rare. Besides it is based on a future event.

But it is also not a futures market. In a futures market, you are buying actual product too. In at least some markets what really happens is seller delivers the product to the standard destination unless a buyer has negotiated changes to that part of the contract. Then the items are usually sold immediately on the spot market, as the speculator who bought the product is not interested in having it.

But there are no physical products here. For Intrade (I suspect HSX is similar) the contract is for $10, but is contingent on an event occurring. In futures markets the product is not normally contingent.

It is definitely not like stocks, because in stocks there is a limited number of shares of any stock in existence. You cannot sell stock you don't have. You can simulate it by borrowing stock from somebody, but you need to buy replacement stock for them at some point. Here though, you can sell contracts even if you don't have any already. If you don't buy some back, then if the event occurs you must pay $10 to whoever currently owns the contract (although Intrade handles settling, so you just give Intrade the money, and they make sure it gets to the right place.)

Perhaps an insurance market is the best name, since insurance is a contract for cash contingent upon an event. Thus what you buy and sell on HSX would be better called "policies" than "shares" or "bonds".