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Introduction

The goal of CNN Political Market is to combine the opinions of a diverse group of people to try and predict the probability of an event occurring or the value of something. Why is this important? Because more often than not, a diverse group of people or &#8220-crowd&#8221- will generate a more accurate prediction than an individual or a small group of &#8220-like-minded&#8221- or &#8220-single-discipline&#8221- folks.

In business, politics, and culture, this can have big ramifications:
– Predictions often turn out to be more accurate than surveys and polls-
– More accurate forecasts affect how marketing dollars are spent, how many widgets should be built in the first run, etc.-
– Decision making is more democratized, giving everyone input where they may not have had it before-
– Markets can serve as on-going indicators for key performance metrics.

Frequently Asked Questions

These are answers to questions we receive on a regular basis.
Q: What if I forgot my username or password?
A: It&#8217-s easy, just click here and new information will be sent to the email address we have for you.

Markets and Trading
Q: How do the prices in a market change?
A: Markets are guided by the forces of supply and demand. Every time a user buys a share in a particular idea or outcome, that demand forces the price up a little. The more people buy, the higher the price becomes. If the price gets too high, people will do the natural, self-interested thing and sell their shares to get a profit (or sell shares that they don&#8217-t own on credit). Similarly, each time a user sells a share, the price goes back down some.

Q: My math says I can buy more shares than the system lets me. Why?
A: Remember that for each share you buy, the price goes up some. If you&#8217-re buying a lot of shares at once, the last share in your order might cost significantly more than the first.

Q: I sold a block of shares, but I got less money out of it than I thought I would.
A: Just like the market price increases you see when you purchase shares, each share you sell drives the market price for those shares down a little. If you&#8217-re selling a lot of shares, the last share you sell be worth much less than the first.

Q: I think the current price in a market is reflective of what the market is trying to predict. What do I do now?
A: The best thing to do is to hold onto your shares. If you try to sell them, the market price will start to go down and you won&#8217-t make as much profit as you could if you wait for the market to close.

Balances
Q: What is &#8220-on credit?&#8221-
A: When you sell shares on credit you are betting that the market price of a stock is going to go down instead of up. The idea is to sell shares you don&#8217-t have at a high price, and buy them back later once the market price has fallen. You get to keep the difference as profit.

Because you never know how high a price will go up, we&#8217-ve set up specific rules for selling shares on credit so you don&#8217-t get yourself in to trouble:
– You can buy back shares you bought on credit with the money in your bank.
– There is a limit on how much stock you can sell on credit. You can figure out what that limit is by adding your available balance to the total value of shares you have bought. For example, if you have $10 available balance, and you also own $10 of stock, you can sell $20 of stock on credit. In other words, we try not to allow you to go in to debt by always protecting you against the worst possible scenario.

Q: How can I tell how much money I have?
A: Your balances are listed in the &#8220-total assets&#8221- box which you can find on your dashboard/portfolio. Your balance is also listed on each market trade page.

Q: How can I get more money?
A: You can earn money by trading wisely in markets. Look for good ideas that are undervalued, examine market descriptions for interesting things that others might not have noticed, or use your own unique, personal knowledge to make predictions that others can&#8217-t.

Q: What is the play money good for?
A: Status in the online trading community is based on how much money you have- just take a look at the &#8220-top traders.&#8221- The more money you have, the sooner everyone will begin to refer to you as &#8220-sage.&#8221-

Q: Can I give some of my money to another user?
A: Money is non-transferable – you must earn your own by trading.

Marketplace and Help
Q: The website looks a little funny. Is my computer supported?
A: We support the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Mozilla for Windows XP and 2000. For Mac OS X we support the latest versions of Safari, Firefox, and Mozilla. The application may work in alternate OSes and browsers, but we can&#8217-t make any promises.