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Need help? Take a look at the FAQ’s below. You might also take a tour to see how to participate in our prediction market. If that still doesn’t help or you aren't finding what you are looking for, you can send a note to support.

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FAQs

Q: What is The Industry Standard prediction market?
A: Our prediction market is a place where, for entertainment purposes, you can bet on the chances of future events occurring or not occurring, using a virtual currency called "Standard Dollars". The predictions listed on the market are all related to the online economy, which touches nearly all businesses these days. If you see a prediction on the site where you believe you know the future outcome, place a bet and see if you are right. If your bet is correct, you’ll win more "Standard Dollars" to bet on other predictions, and your community rank will increase. If you’re really good, you may also win prizes.

Q: What do the Community Consensus/Probabilities mean?
A: The Community Consensus (Probability) is a rolled-up percentage of all the community's bets on that prediction, meaning it represents the consensus of the community as to the probability of that event. We calculate this not only by the number of total bets, but more importantly, we calculate the amount of Standard Dollars wagered in total. For example, if there is a prediction stating, “Apple will sell 10 million iPhones by October 31, 2008” and the community odds are at 65%, that means the community believes there is a 65% chance that the event will occur by the date specified. Ultimately, the consensus is built off of all of the betting actions of the community, bets in favor and bets against.

Q: Do I have to use real money to play?
A: No. The Industry Standard uses a virtual currency called Standard Dollars. When you register, you will receive 100,000 Standard Dollars (S$). As you wager successfully on predictions, your S$ cash will increase.

Q: How do I get started?
A: Follow these steps:

  1. Register (or Login)
  2. Validate your registration with the registration confirmation email. Once you’ve successfully registered and logged in, you’ll be awarded 100,000 Standard Dollars (S$) to get started.
  3. Check out the featured predictions on the homepage, or the predictions page, or click on “All Predictions” to see what’s available for wagers.
  4. If you see a prediction where you think you know the outcome, place a bet. The amount of money you decide to put down relates to your confidence level. Note: Just like Mom used to say, don’t spend all of your money in one place. The more diverse your prediction portfolio, the better off you’ll be. Need more help? Check out the Tour.

Q: Where do I track my predictions where I’ve placed bets?
A: When you are logged into the site, you can track your predictions where you’ve wagered bets by clicking on “My Predictions”, which may be found at the top of every page.

Q: What if I have a great idea for a prediction, but it isn’t on the site?
A:If you want to see a prediction on the site that you think would be relevant to The Industry Standard’s mission, you can suggest one at any time. The community will then vote to see if your suggestion should be added to the site. If the suggestion is well received, The Industry Standard team may convert the Suggestion into a Prediction. Once this happens, you will instantly be awarded S$25,000 to your account!

Here’s how to Suggest a Prediction:

  1. Login
  2. Click on Suggest in the navbar.
  3. Title. This will be the title of the prediction if it is accepted. Sometimes you may want to include the date that the prediction would be judged in the title (e.g., “Apple will sell 5 million iPhones by April 2008”). All predictions need “close dates”, when they will be judged to have occurred or not.
  4. Categories. Choose up to three categories you believe your suggestion would fall under (e.g., Apple, iPhone, mobile)
  5. Body. Add a meaningful description of the prediction to give the community a complete understanding of the event you’d like to have predicted. You can also include particular insights like links to recent news, links to video, extra wager details, opinions, etc.
  6. Prediction Close Date. All predictions MUST HAVE a date when they would be judged. If an event occurs before the suggested close date, it will be judged at that time. If an event happens after a close date, it will not be valid and the prediction will fail. However, shorter close dates help to ensure community interest, which increases the likelihood that your Suggestion will be accepted.
  7. No Suggestions will be voted on for longer than 30 days.
  8. That’s it! Submit the Suggestion and check back to see how it is doing. Remember, you could be awarded S$25,000 for each Suggestion that is popular enough to become a full-fledged Prediction! If your Suggestion is not accepted, you will not be awarded any Standard Dollars.

Q: What does my rank mean?
A: An algorithm takes the diversity of your portfolio and intersects it with your predictive results and your site activity to build your site rank.

Q: What is the Leaderboard?
A: There are two Leaderboards. One is a listing, from highest to lowest, of all members’ Net Worth on The Industry Standard. The second Leaderboard, viewable only by logged in members, shows the user's rank versus his or her Industry Standard connections on the site.

Q: What is Net Worth?
A: Your Net Worth is an indicator of how well you are doing in placing bets and suggesting predictions on The Industry Standard. You start at S$100,000 when you register. If you make good decisions on the predictions you bet on, your Net Worth will go up as your bets pay off. If you make bad decisions, your Net Worth will go down. This will impact your Industry Rank.

Q: What happens when a prediction that I’ve placed a bet on is judged?
A: When a prediction is judged, you are credited with Standard Dollars for each bet that you get right. If the odds were already high that an event would occur when you placed your bet, you wouldn’t earn as much if you were right, compared to what you would earn if you bet on a long shot, where the odds were low. However, the most important thing is to be right. When the event’s closing date occurs (the date on which the event will be judged to see if an event has occurred or not), The Industry Standard will review the prediction and determine if the prediction has come true. As soon as we make that judgment, your account will be updated accordingly, depending on how you bet.

Q: What is cashing out?
A: Cashing out allows you to cancel your bet before the prediction’s close date has occured. If you think you bet unwisely, or maybe you bet too much and want to move your Standard Dollars elsewhere, you can cash out. Just like when a prediction is judged (see above), the amount you get when you cash out is based on the odds when you cash out, compared to the odds when you originally placed your bet. If you placed your bet when the odds were low, and you cash out when the odds are high, you will get more cash back than if you cash out after the odds have not moved very much. This can come in handy especially if a prediction has a very distant closing date and you want to free up some cash. Just be sure you aren’t going to lose a huge amount of Standard Dollars if you can help it!

Q: Why would I want to “Connect” with someone?
A: Connecting with other users on The Industry Standard will allow you compete directly against your colleagues, view their portfolios (if they let you) and view the content they have contributed to the site. Furthermore, as more site features are added to the site, you will soon be able to conduct private communications about their predicting strategies.

Prizes

Want to see what you can do with your Standard Dollars? Check out our prize program!

Participate

There are lots of ways to participate with, or even contribute to, The Industry Standard. Find out more.