Daily Archives: July 15, 2008

How BetFair stole Bastille Day from the French -and how Ed Murray became BetFairs best friend (NOT A HOAX).

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Michael Giberson (professor of economics and chairman of our scientific advisory board):

Actually, I would expect the change to improve liquidity, but the real surprise for Ed Murray is that other than his liquidity argument, I pretty much agree with him this time.

It is a better scheme than before, as the exchange will match traders’ bets more efficiently and offer price improvement when available.

As Betfair observes (and Murray notes) the downside is for traders who make a bet in error, and now find the more efficient market has matched the bet before it could be withdrawn. If this is a frequent problem for a trader, perhaps they need to exercise a little more care at the keyboard. But as the Befair announcement indicates — and this time Ed Murray is repeating the Betfair company line! — at least there is the possibility that the trader will be matched at a better price than he would have otherwise.

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I told you that vice presidential search committees and VP prediction markets are complete bullshit, didnt I?

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The McLaughlin Group of mid-June (yes, I know, that&#8217-s last month):

MS. BERNARD: Well, here&#8217-s what I think. I think the dirty little secret is Barack Obama probably already knows who he&#8217-s going to select to be his vice presidential running mate. You put out the search committee, probably because Hillary Clinton was all over his back last week &#8211-

DR. MCLAUGHLIN: So this is a smokescreen. This is a smokescreen.

MS. BERNARD: I don&#8217-t know if it&#8217-s a smokescreen, but I think he has a good idea who his vice presidential running mate is going to be. And the search committee is much ado about nothing.

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I told you so.

No good advanced, primary indicators.

Don&#8217-t trade on VP prediction markets.

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InTrades market data shows that the sliding Dow Jones Industrial Average has an exceptionally strong negative correlation (approx. -0.91 over the last 10 weeks) with the rise in the InTrade Market for Barack Obama to be the next US President.

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UPDATE: Some smart comments, just below&#8230-

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Forrester recommend to add enterprise prediction markets in the company toolbox.

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Forrester recommend to view enterprise prediction markets as&#8230- addition &#8212-not substitution.

Excellent point.

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Prediction Markets Harness The Wisdom Of The Crowd To Predict The Future
Prediction Markets Bring A Market Function To The Gathering Of Information
Most Markets See Accuracy That Is At Least As Good As Traditional Forecasting Methods
Prediction Markets Have Substantive Benefits For The Enterprise&#8230-
&#8230-But Still Need Active Supervision To Ensure Success

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The &#8220-wisdom of crowds&#8221- is capturing the attention of corporate strategists across the globe, and, as a result, many are now looking to prediction markets — speculative markets in which traders collectively predict future events — to generate collective intelligence. For enterprises, prediction markets bring unique value: They focus on the future, aggregate diverse information pools that can be applied to multiple decision-making domains, create streams of actionable data suitable for executive decision-making, and can often cut through corporate politics and pressures at lower cost than traditional forecasting methods. Market researchers will, however, need to have an active hand in the management of these mechanisms, ensuring strong management support, the right incentives for traders, and a focus on appropriate questions. When executed properly, the value to the enterprise is enormous- as a result, Forrester believes that prediction markets will ultimately find a permanent home in the market research toolbox.

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