Discuss as:  How to make a profit in politics  IEM / msnbc.com
The red line in this chart shows the dramatic rise in the price
of Newt Gingrich shares on the Iowa Electronic Markets' exchange
for the 2012 Iowa GOP presidential caucus. "ROF" is "rest of
field."  How many stockbrokers can boast about a trade that
brought in more than 200 times their investment over the past
six weeks? Political pundits could, if they had the foresight to
"invest" in GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich's prospects
back in October.  The Iowa Electronic Markets make it possible
to do such a deal: The IEM operation, sponsored by the
University of Iowa's Tippie School of Business as a economic
research project, is the only market in the country that has the
tacit blessing of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to
let traders lay real money down on political predictions. In
other contexts, this might be known as a "bet."  Here's how it
works: You can buy up to $500 worth of shares in a political
proposition — for example, th