|
|
What are prediction markets ?
Prediction markets are a proven technology that provide an exciting and
innovative way to use people's perception about the future to predict, with
a high degree of accuracy, the probability of a future event occurring.
This technology has been around for almost 20 years and is now being used by
many corporations world wide to guide their business decisions. These
corporations aggregate the opinions of their clients and employees to
identify the current consensus, which helps them to predict areas such as
the future profitability of a product line or the success of a new
innovative idea. Additionally online betting websites are using this
technology to provide their clients with a new way of gambling and news
polls to dynamically forecast the public's perception of the future.
Click here to read more about prediction markets in Wikipedia
How Tradevents Prediction Market Works ?
The Tradevents' prediction market works in much the same way as a stock
exchange. The market contains contracts that represent the occurrence of a
future event. These contracts are bought and sold by the market
participants (the traders) according to whether they believe that a
particular future event will happen. The market participants place orders
into the exchange to buy or sell the contract at a certain price. These
orders are automatically executed by the Tradevents exchange when two orders
match. The matched deal is always with another member of the prediction
market.
All contracts have a nominal binary value of 0 and 100. If the event occurs
the buyer receives from the seller the full value of the contract but if the
event does not occur no further action is taken.
For example:
The following contract exists in the market, "Manchester United to win
2006/2007 Barclays Premiership."
Market Participant A places an order to buy 10 contracts for 82, as he
believes that Manchester United will win the Premiership. Market
Participant B places an order to sell 7 contracts for 82, as he believes
that there is a chance Manchester United will not win the Premiership. 7
out of 10 of Market Participant A's (the buyer's) contracts will be executed
with Market Participant B (the seller).
If Manchester United win the Premiership, Market Participant B will have to
pay Market Participant A 100 leaving his overall position down 18. Market
Participant A's overall position will be up 18.
If Manchester United do not win the Premiership no further action is taken,
Market Participant A will have lost 82 and Market Participant B will have
gained 82.
|
|