Stocks are Up (like a Hail Mary)

For years, people have been waiting for Facebook to go public so that they can invest their money in Facebook stock. However, it seems that Facebook is quite adamant to stay a private company. For these people, it seems that they do not have another outlet to invest in. Until now. A new kind of stock market has arisen out of Cambridge, Massachusetts with a new twist. Instead of investing in publicly traded companies like Google and Apple, investors put their money on the stock of none other than professional sports players, like Tom Brady and Lebron James.

As seen in Jon Brodkin's article on CIO.com, StarStreet.com has introduced itself and is ready to be a full-fledged stock market. Still in its beta period, StarStreet.com is already starting off fast and has offered numerous IPOs (initial player offerings) that are drawing the attention of a "new kind of investor with more experience in fantasy sports than Wall Street stock trading." StarStreet functions very similarly to existing stock markets like NASDAQ and NYSE but one key difference is that the value of the market remains stable. However, player values can go up and down each day, just like the real stock market, and prices are determined based on supply and demand, rather than by the player statistics used in fantasy sports leagues.

Sports stock markets are not a new endeavor, but successful ones are rare. One site, OneSeason, tried it, but crashed because there was an unlimited supply of player shares. StarStreet seems to have a better shot at success, according to founder Jeremy Levine, because of a zero-sum market supply and a tightly controlled demand. I think that a sports stock market is an interesting concept, especially since it uses real money. It is similar to betting on sports, but is perfectly legal and not as risky as it your profits would be based on seeking out trends and knowing when to buy or sell, and not on chance.