Traders Bidding Up Democrats/Short Selling Republican White House contracts

The bettors don’t like the odds of a Republican being elected. That is not me saying that – it is a fact


Price for 2008 US Presidential Election Winner (Political Party) at intrade.com

The intrade graph above is seconded by the Iowa electronic markets graph below. The short hand anaylis is that investors will pay $0.60 for a contract that will pay off $1.00 if a Democrat becomes President, but will only pay $0.40 for a contract that pays off $1.00 in the event that a Republican wins.

pres08_wta.png

The edge of that graph is cut off and I can’t resize it until monday. Here is a link in the meantime.

http://iemweb.biz.uiowa.edu/graphs/graph_PRES08_WTA.cfm