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Web Summit 2021 - Day Two
Tarek Mansour, Co-founder and CEO of Kalshi (Diarmuid Greene/Getty Images)
Election Arbitrage

A tale of two prediction markets

The gap in presidential election odds may have created an arbitrage opportunity in these new prediction markets.

Jack Raines

A US federal appeals court ruled last week that Kalshi could list event contracts allowing Americans to bet on the US presidential election, and Kalshi wasted no time getting its new market live.

On Friday, October 4, the company launched its presidential election market, and Kalshi's founder and CEO Tarek Mansour noted that initial volume was so high that it caused issues with Kalshi's site.

Three days later, with the site now fully functioning, bettors have wagered approximately $773,000 on Kalshi's presidential market. However, the election market appears to have created an interesting arbitrage opportunity due to a gap between the election odds on Kalshi and competing prediction market platform Polymarket.

While Kalshi is currently pricing Harris at a 51% chance of winning...

Kalshi Election Odds
Kalshi's presidential election odds, October 7

Polymarket, which has gotten a great deal of media attention for its prediction markets, shows Trump leading Harris 53.7% to 45.6%.

Polymarket Election Odds
Polymarket's presidential election odds, October 7

It seems like there is a trade to make here: a trader could long Harris on Polymarket and short her on Kalshi, or long the underdog candidate in both markets. I'll be watching to see if these markets converge over time.

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SpaceX gets a wave of bullish ratings from Wall Street analysts

SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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