We've created an exchange for you to trade (speculate on) events that directly affect your life, like politics, entertainment, financial indicators, weather, current events and legal affairs - these are our trading categories.
Within each category we list a set of contracts, a contract is an event that will have an unambiguous result.
For example, some of our political contracts are: "Will George Bush be re-elected in 2004" or "Will John Kerry win the Democratic Nomination". Each one is an event with an unambiguous result, either George Bush will be re-elected or he won't.
You are trading (speculating on) what you think the outcome of that event will be.
Let's use one of our political contracts as an example - Will George Bush be re-elected President. There are only two possible outcomes for this contract - Yes, he will be re-elected or No, he will not.
When the election is over and the result is official, if George Bush gets re-elected that contract will close at 100. If on the other hand he fails to win the general election, the contract - Will George Bush be re-elected President - will close at 0.
However, until the election is over that contract will fluctuate in value between 0 and 100 just like a stock, reacting to the news of the day and buying & selling by you the trader.