ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Prediction Markets

Imagine you and your friends love to play games and bet on who will win. Now, instead of betting on simple games, prediction markets let people bet on the outcome of real-life events. For example, who will win the next presidential election or whether a particular company's stock will go up or down?

In these markets, people buy and sell contracts based on their predictions. These contracts work like tickets to a game, where you pay a certain amount to support your prediction. If your prediction ends up being correct, you get paid by someone who made a wrong prediction. If you are wrong, you lose the money you put in.

The price at which these contracts are bought and sold helps the market determine what people think the probability of the event occurring is. For instance, if a contract for a presidential candidate is selling for $0.60, that means the market thinks there is a 60% chance that candidate will win the election.

Prediction markets can be useful because since many people participate in them, there is a lot of information being taken into account. As a result, they can be more accurate than trying to predict outcomes based on just a few people's opinions. People with specialized knowledge in certain fields may also be able to make more informed predictions, allowing them to earn money by buying and selling contracts.

Overall, prediction markets are a way for people to use their knowledge and judgment to make predictions about real-world events while potentially earning money. However, they are still quite complex and can involve serious risks, so it's important to understand them carefully before investing money.