CNN Political Prediction Market Contest: I Landed The Bronze Medal!

[Originally published as a Facebook Note]

MICHAEL WEDDLE · SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2016

[UPDATE EDIT: Election now finished, I landed the bronze medal in CNN’s Political Prediction Market contest involving 220,000 contestants.]

In CNN’s 2016 Political Prediction Market (powered by the Pivit oddsmaking organization — Vegas-like) I’ve now moved into the Bronze Medal position after a near-month long spell holding down Fourth Place. Gotta grab 90,000 more points to move for The Silver Medal (the Gold is out of reach). So, in a rare moment in my life, my brain and computer technology willing … I’m a gonna reach for The Silver among nearing 200,000 contestants!

Global Ranking of #3

CNN kicked off this contest in September 2015 of the election cycle. I joined it at mid-January. Extremely difficult to play competitively — it’s so time-consuming — this contest has absorbed so much of my time. Participating is like a combination of speed chess and trading stocks online on a daily basis (I’ve done both) at the same time. It has the same kind of feel when the action heats up and quick decision is required. And sometimes I’ve gotta go go mining to collect points, predicting strengths and weaknesses of the numbers matched to political news and trends of the day.

I hit the Number 5 spot nearly three months ago. At that point, due to the time consumption, I declared victory for making the Top Five, set my bets as best for longevity and quit playing. A week and a half later I checked back in and found I only slipped to Number 7. So aiming for The Top Ten I got back in and ended up in the Bronze spot.

Were I playing for real money I would have become a millionaire. But I’d give all of that up if Bernie Sanders could become the next president!

I can’t wait for this election to end. It’s been highly distressing as I’ve followed it so closely, not wanting either Trump or Clinton to win. This, of course, is the worst part of it all — lol!