Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 7504

I first proposed this contest at another site I frequent. Unfortunately, the people there are stinking, cowardly weasels, so I figured I'd give the Asylum a shot.

Many of you will already be aware of InTrade. Operating out of Ireland, as morally questionable enterprises often do, InTrade is an online current events "stock market" in which people buy and sell “contracts” on certain events.

All contracts are based on the occurrence or non-occurrence of falsifiable events within a given time frame. For instance: you can buy a contract on whether Rudy Giuliani will be elected President; whether there will be five or more storms classified as "hurricanes" in the Carribean before August first; or whether Paris Hilton will spend at least one day behind bars by the end of the year.

Contracts pay off at a value of $100 per contract if the event occurs, or $0 if it doesn't. The market sets the rates at which contracts are bought and sold, and in most cases real money is won and lost. For example: hypothetically, I myself could have lost $100 in the market when I bought 2.5 Kerry election contracts at $40 and then watched him somehow manage to lose.
Just hypothetically, mind you.

In addition, you can always buy a contract on an event, wait for that event to become more likely in the eyes of the public, thereby raising its price, and then sell the contract for a neat profit. For instance, Kerry contracts were selling at $61 on election day, so if I had hypothetically wanted to I could have cashed out my earlier contract purchase for a tidy $21 per share profit, instead of hypothetically watching him lose the election that night, at which point the contract was worth nothing.

In addition to the real-money market, by which InTrade execs make their living, they now have a “play” section where competitors can play the markets with fake money–the contract buy prices are still set by the actual market, but the cash is imaginary. This means impoverished retards like you and I can play the game of future prediction for imaginary profit.

Naturally, I would never condone actual gambling with actual money. But I challenge any and all of you to roll the dice with me in a $5000 fake-account challenge. Will Tim Pawlenty be the Republican VP nominee? Will Hugo Chavez be overthrown in a coup? Will Law and Order be cancelled? Put your fake money where your mouth is. On January 20 2009, when the US Presidential election results are ratified, we’ll see who’s rolling in fake dough and who’s fake stinking broke.

Any takers?

Last edited by CHiPsJr on 05-21-2007 at 09:32 PM

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: zanzibar
Posts: 10477

I'll sign up tonight.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 24797

Neato. I'm in. I have a hunch it will be fun.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 24797

BTW, are their any contracts related to when InTrade will work with Firefox?

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: May 2002
Location: blessed oblivion
Posts: 1497

Sounds like fun! Is there a group we can join, or how will this be verified?

T_T - it worked fine for me with firefox, you must be doing it wrong. as usual.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 24797

You are right, you flat object used for serving. I had scripts blocked.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: May 2002
Location: blessed oblivion
Posts: 1497

That's your first mistake. Why wouldn't you want google-analytics watching everything you do?

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 7504

As best I can tell, we'll have to be honest with each other. I intend to use this thread to boast about my successful maneuverings, and bemoan my failures.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jul 2001
Location: China
Posts: 11795

Sounds interesting. I'll need to read the fine print.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jul 2001
Location: China
Posts: 11795

Okay, I'm in.

but it's not a very liquid market.
and there aren't as many options as I had imagined.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 24797

quote:

---

Originally posted by Tray
That's your first mistake. Why wouldn't you want google-analytics watching everything you do?

---

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 7504

I can't seem to get them to restore my account. Somehow customers without any money left don't seem to be a priority to them.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 24797

That's what happens when you buy a contract on Ron Paul hitting 2%.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: May 2007
Location:
Posts: 1

We here at Intrade were pleased to hear about your interest in our play-money trading site. We currently don't have a facility that allows you to set up your own league with a leaderboard to rank those involved, but we can set something up informally so long as there are at least 10 participants. We can post the leaderboard at least weekly – perhaps daily depending on the take up.

If you're interested then please email us at help@intrade.com with your Intrade Learn account details. We will then compile a weekly leaderboard and keep everyone involved up-to-date with their progress.

Dependent on the amount of interest we may even offer a small prize for the top trader.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Dec 2002
Location:
Posts: 16328

Now that is a very decent and far more than fair offer to make this interesting. I may have to look at this again.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jul 2001
Location: China
Posts: 11795

Are you on that Chips?

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jul 2001
Location: China
Posts: 11795

Hey, my info disappeared....

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Mar 2004
Location: Still Orygun
Posts: 10450

Looks interesting, but I don't have enough time to post on this site, let alone figure out how to be an evil overlord somewhere else.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 7504

II spent six solid hours over a period of two days trying to reactivate my account. I was sent around in circles by the live help staff--on the rare occasions that I could reach them--and my email on the subject still awaits a reply after four days. Nor am I permitted to create a new account under my own name and address.

Somebody else is going to have to run the "league", as I've sort of lost interest in dealing with this organization. Damn shame; it's a great idea for a website.

Last edited by CHiPsJr on 05-25-2007 at 05:30 AM

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 24797

There is seemingly nothing that we can't fail at around here.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jul 2005
Location: different
Posts: 5216

2 cents on intrade is a big fat fraud

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged