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Bobblehead Futures Market

A market in bobblehead futures
  (+3, -4)
(+3, -4)
  [vote for,
against]

Let's see: we have markets in futures for everything from wheat, gas, oil, soy, stocks, hogs, and innumerable other things. Why not bobbleheads? It would cover everything from football player ones, NASCAR drivers, and even good old Obama himself.

The main function of a futures market is to allow people to hedge against the change in price of a commodity or financial instrument, thus minimizing losses if it moves against them. A secondary function is to allow speculators to bet on future price movements. It seems to me that people who buy bobbleheads in significant numbers (i.e. 100,000 or more, so a wholesaler for instance) would need to hedge against the price changing before they can offload them. This market would allow them to do that.

A contract could be established on the NYMEX (now part of CME Group). The symbol would be BOBL, and one contract could control 10,000 units. A one penny change in price would therefore mean a gain or loss of $100 to the contract holder.

andrewbee, Apr 12 2010

you could cash in on the Collectible People collections http://www.bobbleheads.com/
[xandram, Apr 12 2010]

[link]






       Sterling work, Mr [tom].
pertinax, Apr 12 2010
  

       Actually, I consume ham WHILE trading oil futures, listening to the radio, driving and juggling hand grenades quite frequently. It does cause me to spill milk, however. I do collect the caps from the milk bottles though, and have indirectly helped identify a murderer (by being part of the line-up).   

       So, it's no stretch to me that all the other combos thereof are plausible.   

       Especially juggling murderers.
andrewbee, Apr 12 2010
  

       Eagerly awaiting [ZT]'s posting of 56 new ideas
pocmloc, Apr 12 2010
  

       I disagree with zen_tom The idea here is a futures trade in celebrity. The really clever thing about it is the concept that bobbleheads reify notoriety. The price of a bobblehead reflects the market's expectation of that person's future fame. That's why bobbleheads aren't just a randomly selected commodity.   

       Celebrities come and go. Odd, unexpected people become extremely famous, but you can't tell if their fame will last, or if they'll turn out to be nine-day-wonders. There are "blue-chip" celebrities (heads of state, supreme court justices), and you can try to make rational predictions (e.g. before the last US presidential election you might have sold McCain and bought Obama based on polling results) but you can still guess wrong (if you sold Palin short, you'd have made a big mistake). If you'd had inside dope on JK Rowling, you'd have made a killing.   

       So [+].
mouseposture, Apr 12 2010
  

       They're 3D characature toys, normally celebrities, the heads, on springs, bob up and down and wobble too and fro, bob + wobble + head = bobblehead.  That's 'b' as in 'boy', 'o', 'b' as in 'boy', 'b' as in 'boy', 'l', 'e', 'head'.  Bobblehead.   

       Ideas CAN recombine, like DNA, to create new ideas.  Whether they are good or bad is selelected by the 'audience'.   

       This idea is funny and wonderful to imagine, people seriously betting on Bobblehead Futures.   

       I like the Listen to Milk idea name.  I would Drive Ham in a pinch.  +
Mustardface, Apr 13 2010
  
      
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