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Box office betting: Running Trend Exchange thread

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by TigerVols, Apr 18, 2010.

  1. TigerVols

    TigerVols Well-Known Member

    Anyone else planning on putting their money where their mouth is?

    Soon enough, you'll be able to literally bet on the performance of movies. It's called Trend Exchange, and it's brought to you in part by the folks of Cantor Fitzgerald (the WTC-based company nearly wiped out by 9/11).

    People here in Hollywood -- most of whom hate the idea -- expect it to be up and running in time to bet on Iron Man 2. I think that's unrealistic, but it could be going by the Fall.

    Here's a story about the scheme:

    http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/04/18/hollywood_a_little_queasy_over_film_futures_market/
     
  2. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    I love it. Have read several articles about it.

    Hollywood is freaking out about it now, but if Cantor can create a marketplace, it would be a great way for studios & investors to hedge their investments.

    They mention fears of market manipulation, but I think they're more worried about being embarrassed by the big budget "blockbuster" getting sold short prior to release.
     
  3. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    And we've all been long laboring under the delusion that bookmaking was illegal.
     
  4. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Sam Zell would have bet the company on "Gigli."
     
  5. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    I used to be a trader on the NYFE -- the New York Futures Exchange. It was/is a minor league futures exchange, that at the time was owned by the NYSE. (It was later sold to the New York Cotton Exchange, which in turn became the New York Board of Trade when it merged with the Coffee, Sugar, and Cocoa Exchange).

    We traded stock index and commodity index futures on the floor at 4 World Trade Center.

    At one point, the price of our seat fell to just a couple of hundred bucks.

    Trading volume was pretty low, so my suggestion was to bus in tourists; sell 'em a seat; give 'em a little bit of training; and throw them in the ring.

    It would have been great. Why send them all to Atlantic City when they could have blown their money in an actual trading pit?
     
  6. John

    John Well-Known Member

Draft saved Draft deleted

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