Just a brief note to say that we’ve been working on a lot of new stocks and they will start to appear on the WSX this coming Tuesday at 11:00am Eastern Time.  From this point forward, we’re going to be announcing the majority of IPOs at least a day in advance so that everyone has an equal opportunity to get in on the initial price.  IPOs will become active at 11:00am EST unless otherwise noted.  

The Associated Press is now calling the Virginia race for Jim Webb. While the chances are good that this is the actual outcome of the race, we’re going to see if the election results come up against any significant legal challenges before we judge the stocks.

From the AP report:
Allen’s campaign issued a statement noting that state officials are conducting a canvass of the votes cast in Tuesday’s balloting.

“At the conclusion of those efforts, Senator George Allen plans to make a statement regarding the outcome,” it said.

With most of the 2006 election stocks cleared out, we’re going to start adding new stocks to the Washington Stock Exchange. You may have noticed that we’ve already added a few, such as:

JLIEBDEM: Joe Lieberman Rejoins the Democratic Party
VPOFFICE: VP Dick Cheney in Office on Jan. 1 2008
SADDAMF7: Saddam Hussein Sentence Carried Out by Feb 07

We have a long list of stocks to add and have also received many suggestions from WSX traders. To send us your stock ideas, send an email at info@thewsx.com. Examples include: policy decisions, appointments, resignations, Supreme Court decisions, and any other future political event that you think might be relevant on the WSX. Feel free to send us feature requests for the site as well.

Also, there are a handful of House races that haven’t been judged yet since we’re waiting for the results of a recount or an announcement from a credible source. You’ll be able to trade on those until they are judged. Click here to view the active House races. The Virginia Senate race is still active as well.

Some races have already been called by the TV networks but the WSX stocks won’t be judged until the winner is announced.  Use these links to stay up-to-date on the latest election info:

RealClearPolitics

CNN Election Coverage

The Drudge Report

UPDATE - As you may have already noticed, we’re judging stocks as the news becomes available. You will see your net worth update immediately after a stock that you own has been judged.

From the New York Times:

Former Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia, who has been traveling across the country for more than a year exploring a bid for the White House, said today that, after “a lot of reflection, prayer and soul-searching,” he had decided not to seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.

A centrist Democrat who has embraced some positions more commonly associated with Republicans, Mr. Warner has been widely regarded as an attractive presidential candidate. He said his decision crystallized in the past several days.

Trading on P1MAWA08 has been temporarily halted so we can make a determination about whether to judge it now or wait until the expiration date.

It’s interesting to point out that the stock fell sharply yesterday, from an all-time high of W$90.89 down to W$64.57. So it appears that the WSX was signaling this news almost a day before it became public knowledge.

Read more on the Washington Post blog, The Fix.

If you have been following the news in the past 24 hours, you already know that North Korea apparently detonated a *very* large explosive device.  Needless to say, the WSX stock (IRNKNK07: North Korea Tests Nuclear Weapon before 2007) has been quite active since that time.  The stock price is W$97.59 as of this posting.

We’re monitoring the news coverage closely and will judge the stock as soon as we are satisfied that it actually was a nuclear device.  With all the attention that the story is receiving, I imagine that we’ll know something either way fairly soon.

The main WSX site is running a little slower than normal due to a feature that was run on the Digg.com home page about the WSX a few hours ago.  For those of you who don’t know about Digg, it’s a popular news site that harnesses the "wisdom of crowds" instead of an editorial staff to select what articles and information run on the website.

We recently upgraded the WSX server hardware and we’re about to do it again.  Hopefully we can keep the site up until then — our signup rate is up a few thousand percent since the story appeared. :)  

Cheers - and welcome to the WSX!  If you haven’t joined yet, here is the link. (it’s free - and fun!)

Needless to say, we’re very excited about the level of participation that we’ve witnessed in the last 24 hours.

You may have noticed that we incrementally add new stocks to the WSX. For example, we just added a stock about the future of Bin Laden (OBL06) as well as a stock related to the career of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens (CTSTEV07).

Soon, we’ll have a process that will allow traders to suggest new stocks directly. Until then, feel free to forward your stock ideas to info@thewsx.com.

We are very pleased to announce the launch of the Washington Stock Exchange! The WSX is a political prediction market where traders buy and sell stocks based on their opinions about the underlying events. As traders participate in the market, their activity is aggregated together to generate predictions about what’s going to happen in the world of politics. The sign up is quick and easy and we’ll fund your trading account with W$1,000,000 (that’s Washington dollars) to use for trading.

The WSX is currently in beta so you may encounter bugs as we continue to develop the site. If you run into any problems or anything that you find confusing, please don’t hesitate to email us at info@thewsx.com. Additionally, please let us know if you have any ideas for new stocks. Currently, the market lists the 2006 Senate races, key House and Gubernatorial elections, potential 2008 Presidential contenders, and some other political events, such as which party will control the House after the 2006 elections (HOUSE06) and whether or not the US will launch an attack on Iran (IRANWAR).

We will be adding new stocks on a regular basis so stay tuned for new IPOs. The stocks IPO at $50 (i.e., even odds) so get in early for the best deals!

We hope you are as excited about trading on the WSX as we are about launching it! As we get ready to debut the new site, we thought it would be a good idea to tap into the collective intelligence to develop the official Washington Stock Exchange slogan. An effective tag line is a fantastic way to brand the WSX and goes a long way to communicate what the exchange is all about.

Besides gaining the satisfaction that comes with contributing to the WSX web presence, the winner will be prominently mentioned and credited on the WSX site and blog and will receive a special bonus in their WSX account. Please forward your ideas to info@washingtonsx.com by Friday, July 14th.