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Hollywood Stock Exchange entry at Wikipedia:
The Hollywood Stock Exchange, or HSX, is a web-based, multiplayer game in which players use simulated money to buy and sell “shares” of actors, directors, upcoming films, and film-related options. [...]
HSX is a play-money prediction exchange… and a PM software firm.
Wikipedia does mention that HSX is owned by Cantor Fitzgerald, but does not mention that it was founded in 1996 by Max Keiser and Michael Burns.
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Max Keiser entry at Wikipedia:
Max Keiser is an inventor, a podcaster, broadcaster and journalist. [...] [Max] Keiser invented the virtual specialist technology and co-founded the Hollywood Stock Exchange. [...]
As the New York Times pointed out, the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) is unique amongst virtual markets for more closely mimicking the real markets. Max’s design for moviestocks, starbonds, virtual mutual funds, and the virtual currency whose value is controlled by a virtual central bank has been awarded three patents . HSX is the world’s first patented prediction market. While co-chairman of HSX, Keiser presented a weekly segment, “Battle at the Box Office,” for NBC’s Access Hollywood. Keiser’s segment caused the sort of controversy that often follows him when the major Hollywood studios threatened to boycott NBC if they continued to allow Keiser to predict that weekend’s box office. [...]
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And now, The Question Of The Day: Is Max Keiser “notable” enough to warrant a Wikipedia entry under his name? [Here's Wikipedia's "notability guideline".]
Here’s what I wrote to the Wikipedians:
Hi, my name is Chris Masse, the editor of Midas Oracle, a group blog on prediction markets ( http://www.midasoracle.org/ ). In my judgment, the “Max Keiser” entry on Wikipedia is useful because it gives additional information about the first version of the Holllywood Stock Exchange, which seems to be a more ambitious endeavor that what we have right now. And as you all know, the Hollywood Stock Exchange is the world’s most popular play-money prediction exchange. Economists who have been studying both real-money and play-money prediction markets say that their their relative accuracy is socially valuable. See the works from Robin Hanson, Justin Wolfers, Eric Zitzewitz, Koleman Strumpf, Paul Tetlock, and others. So for all these reasons, I vote to keep the “Max Keiser” entry.
I made the mistake of not logging in into Wikipedia before making this comment and here’s what a Wikipedian wrote 2 seconds after I saved the comment:
Note: The above comment was left by an IP address and it he/she seems to have a conflict of interest, I suggest you read WP:USEFUL and WP:ILIKEIT. All the best. The Sunshine Man 17:36, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
So I went reading the “Conflict Of Interest” page:
A Wikipedia conflict of interest (COI) is an incompatibility between the aim of Wikipedia, which is to produce a neutral encyclopedia, and the aims of an individual editor. COI editing involves contributing to Wikipedia in order to promote yourself or the interests of other individuals, companies, or groups. Where an editor must forego advancing the aims of Wikipedia in order to advance outside interests, he stands in a conflict of interest. COI edits are strongly discouraged. When they cause disruption to the encyclopedia in the opinion of an uninvolved administrator, they may lead to accounts being blocked and embarrassment for the individuals and groups who were being promoted.
Does Chris Masse have a “conflict of interest” promoting prediction market stuff on Wikipedia??? 
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Previous: All the Midas Oracle blog posts mentioning Max Keiser.
External Resource: From the promotional documentation of Kinooga CEO Max Keiser:
Max Keiser launched his career working as a registered securities brokers for some of the largest and most prestigious financial houses in the world, including Shearson Lehman, Alex Brown & Sons and Oppenheimer & Co. His tenure on Wall Street, at the beginning of the longest bull market in history, was a time of financial innovation that would change the foundations of markets and finance around the world. From junk bonds to leveraged buyouts, new ideas were being applied to old financial formulae.
In late 1995, at a meeting at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on Sunset Blvd. West Hollywood California, Max Keiser pitched Michael Burns, a colleague from Wall Street who had moved to LA, on the idea of trading futures contracts based on Hollywood Box Office returns. To test the idea, a virtual exchange, the Hollywood Stock Exchange was built and launched in February of 1996. The site’s immediate success required a more robust, scalable technology to be built. Cambridge Technology Partners was hired for this task. Backed by Burn’s investment, Keiser, with input from Burns, invented the Virtual Specialist Technology; (U.S. pat. no. 5950176) a system for ‘making markets’ with virtual securities whose value is tied to a virtual currency, the Hollywood Dollar. A Virtual SEC, Reserve Bank, and Treasury were also created to manage and regulate this new economy. Esther Dyson’s Release 1.0 hailed the invention as a breakthrough in technologically and economics. It is widely understood that the Virtual Specialist Technology helped define an emerging school of economics that has, as its basis, Robert Metcalfe’s ‘network effect,’ or ‘increased returns economics.’ [...]
External Resource: Max Keiser
