Political Junkies Trade In E-Markets

Avowed political junkies around the world spent the past few weeks trading on increasingly popular online markets that allow people to invest in futures contracts based on election outcomes, just as investors use such contracts to bet on interest rates, the weather and pork bellies. In Alaska, retired grandmother Judy White licked her wounds after betting the wrong way in a political-futures market run by the UNIVERSITY OF IOWA. The Iowa futures site was founded in 1988 as an educational experiment. It limits traders to a $500 initial account, though they can generate more by trading. More than $64,000 in congressional contracts traded there this year. The article originally appeared in the WALL STREET JOURNAL.

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