Taking stock of a race: Iowa Computer Network allow 'investing' in Va. senate battle
Do you have a taste for politics and a desire to diversify your portfolio? How about a small investment in Ollie North?</br></br>Economists at the University of Iowa have combined two of the bigger gambling passions in American life -- the stock market and politics -- to create a computerized bazaar where investors can buy and sell shares in the outcome of the Virginia campaign, the nation's hottest political race.</br></br>Since Jan. 31 traders around the world have been able to invest in the political fortunes of GOP hopeful Oliver L. North, Democratic incumbent Charles S. Robb and other candidates. It won't make anybody a millionaire -- there's a $500 limit on how much one can speculate. There's also no payoff until election day, when the "shares" are redeemed according to the candidates' percentage of the vote.</br></br>But the race already has drawn lots of attention, and organizers say they may soon open trading on the Maryland governor's race.</br></br>"We're currently looking at 120 traders just from around Virginia," said Robert Forsythe, an experimental economist at Iowa. Virtually all of them are affiliated with one of the state's colleges or universities, though the market is open to anyone with a personal computer and a modem.