"Stock Market" for Entertainment

There’s “stock markets” where people buy (with phoney money, of course), “futures” in things like the Presidential campaign, Oscar winners, and a few other things. It’s now been expanded to entertainment in general. You can buy futures on things like books, movies and music. I’m just going to say that they should have done something like this years ago, since there were so many times that I’ve seen things heavily promoted that absolutely should never have gotten the greenlight to begin with. Also, back when I worked for a bookstore chain, and I came across a confidential memo detailing what they’d projected the best sellers for a certain month worth, and what the actual best sellers were. They only got about 1 out of 10 right, and anybody with a clue should have been able to do better than what they were projecting.

Actually, these things have been around for years - Hollywood Stock Exchange (hsx.com) has been around since 1996! I remember this being one of the first really interactive things on the web that I got involved in.

I remember I bet everything I had on Cameron Diaz and made a boatload of money, but then I changed jobs and forgot my username/password. I wonder what my worth would be today?

Yeah, I was part of the Hollywood Stock Exchange back at least a decade ago. Made some money (I was once in their monthly top ten), but quit cold turkey when I realized how pathetic the entire concept was. I mean, I made money on “Where’s Harry Crumb?” for God’s sakes.

I won a hat on HSX. Then I thought, why am I spending so much time researching movies to win a stupid hat? I should be researching real stocks instead. And that is when I opened my first investment accounts.

Back in the 90’s there were also some games based on the real stock market - There was one called Final Bell, IIRC. I don’t know if any of them are still going.

I forgot to mention Idea Futures, which has been around even longer than HSX. I haven’t played it for 10 years or more, but I still get the occasional email when one of my predictions pans out (or doesn’t).

I had one on my Commodore 64 in the late '80s. No idea where it came from but one of the companies (#13) was based on the De Lorean Motor Company, which usually ended up trading at $1/share.