IEM Prospectus: 2012 US Presidential Vote Share Market

On Friday, July 1, 2011, at 11:30am CDT, the Iowa Electronic Market (IEM) will open trading in vote-share contracts based on the 2012 Presidential Election. This document describes those contracts and should be viewed as a supplement to the IEM Trader’s Manual. Except as specified in this prospectus, trading rules for this market are the same as those specified in the Trader’s Manual for the Iowa Electronic Market.

Payoffs in the 2012 Presidential Vote-Share Market will be determined by the percentages of the popular vote received by the official Democratic and Republican nominees in the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election. Specifically, payoffs are determined by the percentages of the total two-party popular vote received by each of the two parties in the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election. Contracts will be associated with the candidates officially nominated by each party. For instance, contracts for a candidate who receives 32.4% of the popular votes cast for the Democratic and Republican candidates, will be worth 32.4 cents each. Payoffs are NOT affected by votes received by nominees from other parties, the outcome of the electoral college or any vote taken by the House of Representatives should such a vote be necessary.

CONTRACTS

Initially the market will consist of one pair of contracts representing an unnamed Republican presidential nominee and an unnamed Democratic presidential nominee.

After the Democratic and Republican National Conventions are completed, two contracts will remain in the market: one representing the Democratic party with its actual nominee and one representing the Republican party with its actual nominee. The payoff to these two contracts will be determined by the percentage of the two-party (Democratic plus Republican) popular vote in the 2012 U. S. Presidential Election received by each party.

Between the opening of the market and the end of the conventions, the IEM reserves the right to split contracts into (possibly several) named nominees for either or both parties as discussed below.

At market open, the financial contracts traded in this market are:

The contract UDEM12_VS represents the Democratic candidate who, as of the beginning the market, is unnamed. The contract UREP12_VS represents the Republican candidate who, as of the beginning the market, is unnamed.

Liquidation formulas can be viewed while you are logged into the IEM trading system by clicking on the market name, PRES12_VS, at the upper right hand corner of the market window.

CONTRACT SPIN-OFFS

The IEM reserves the right to spin off contracts associated with named, potential nominees. When new, candidate-specific contracts are created, they will be spun-off from the UDEM12_VS or UREP12_VS contracts.

For example, suppose that the UDEM12_VS contract is split into (1) a named Democratic nominee designated by NAMED12_VS where NAMED represents the new, named potential Democratic nominee and (2) a new UDEM12_VS contract, which represents remaining unnamed potential Democratic nominees. The new contract NAMED12_VS will liquidate at $1 times the percentage of the two party vote taken by the Democratic party IF the associated named candidate becomes the official Democratic nominee. If the associated candidate does not become the official nominee, the NAMED12_VS contract will expire worthless. UDEM12_VS will liquidate at $1 times the percentage of the two party vote taken by the Democratic party if the specifically named candidate does not become the official Democratic nominee.

UDEM12_VS may be split repeatedly as other interesting named candidates emerge. Contracts associated with named candidates will always liquidate at $1 times the percentage of the two party vote taken by the Democratic party IF the associated candidate becomes the official nominee. UDEM12_VS will always liquidate at $1 times the percentage of the two party vote taken by the Democratic party if no specifically named candidate becomes the nominee.

UREP12_VS may be split in a similar fashion.

No holder of the pre-spinoff contracts will be adversely affected by the spin-off. Traders will receive the same number of each of the new contracts as they held in the original contract, and the sum of the liquidation values of the new contracts will equal the liquidation value of the original contract.

Because the value of the UDEM12_VS and UREP12_VS contracts may change when new candidate-specific contracts are spun off, all outstanding bids and asks for the split contract will be canceled at the time of the spinoff.

Contract spin-offs will be announced in the IEM News Screen at least two days in advance of the spin-off.

After the official Democratic and Republican nominees are determined by their respective conventions, all contracts that will expire worthless (that is those associated with non-nominated candidates and the unnamed contracts if named candidates are nominated) will be removed from trader portfolios and the trading screen. Thus, after the official Democratic and Republican nominees are determined there will again be only two contracts in the market: one associated with the Democratic nominee and party and the other associated with the Republican nominee and party.

Two-party popular vote means the sum of the popular votes cast for the Democratic and Republican parties. (We note, that if a nominee steps down after the convention but before the election, the liquidation values of contracts will remain unaffected even if the nominee is replaced by a previously named nominee.)

OFFICIAL SOURCE FOR CONTRACT LIQUIDATION VALUES

The election data posted on the New York Times official website at 5pm on Wednesday, November 7, 2012 will be the official source used to determine payoffs. In the event that the two parties’ popular votes are not reported at that website by midnight, Wednesday, November 7, 2012, the Washington Post official website will become the official source. Should neither source report popular vote by midnight Wednesday, the information reported in the print version of the New York Times on Thursday, November 8, 2012, or as soon thereafter as reported, will be used. In the event that the election is delayed or postponed, liquidation will take place in a timely fashion after the close of polling sites for the popular vote.

The judgment of the IEM Governors and Directors will be final in resolving questions of interpretation and typographical or clerical errors.

THIRD PARTY CANDIDATES

This market is based only on the Democratic and Republican popular vote in the 2012 Presidential Election. It will remain unaffected by the entry of any third party candidates into the race.

CONTRACT BUNDLES

Fixed-price bundles consisting of one share of each of the contracts in this market can be purchased from or sold to the IEM system at any time. The price of each bundle is $1.00. Because the percentages of the popular vote received by each candidate must sum to one, the total payoff from holding a bundle consisting of one of each contract until the market closes is $1.00.

To buy or sell fixed-price bundles from the IEM exchange, use the “Market Orders” option from the trading Console. Select the option “PRES12_VS (buy at fixed price)” from the Market Orders list to buy bundles. Select the “PRES12_VS (sell at fixed price)” option to sell bundles. Purchases will be charged to your cash account and sales will be credited to your cash account.

Bundles consisting of one share of each of the contracts in this market may also be purchased and sold at current aggregate market prices rather than the fixed price of $1.00. To buy a market bundle at current ASK prices, use the “Market Order” option as above but select the option “PRES12_VS (buy at market prices)”. To sell a bundle at current BID prices, select the option “PRES12_VS (sell at market prices)”.

MARKET CLOSING

This market will remain open until contract liquidation. Liquidation values will be credited to the cash accounts of market participants.

MARKET ACCESS

All current and newly enrolled IEM traders with U.S. dollar denominated accounts will automatically be given trading rights in the 2012 Presidential Vote Share Market. Access to the market is achieved by choosing PRES12_VS in the “Market Selection” pull-down menu on either the Login-Welcome screen or at the bottom of the Trading Screen.

Funds in a trader’s cash account are fungible across markets so new investment deposits are not required. Additional investments up to the maximum of $500 can be made at any time. New traders can open accounts using the IEM OnLine Account Application page at https://iemweb.biz.uiowa.edu/signup. There is a one-time account registration fee of $5.00, and investments are limited to the range of $5.00 to $500.

Requests to withdraw funds may be submitted at any time by completing the IEM’s Online Withdrawal Request form (www.biz.uiowa.edu/accounts/withdrawalrequestform.html) or by completing and mailing the paper version of the request form. Additional information about requesting withdrawals is available at the IEM website at https://iemweb.biz.uiowa.edu/accounts/withdrawals.html.