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

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.