TY - CHAP AB - The 2008 U.S. presidential election was of great interest nationally and internationally. Interest in the 2008 election was sufficient to drive a $2.8 million options market by a U.K.-based company INTRADE. The options in this market are priced as European style fixed return options (FRO). In 2008, the Security and Exchanges Commission approved, and both the American Stock Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange began to trade FROs. Little research is available on trading in FROS because these markets are very new. This chapter uses the INTRADE options market data to construct exponential smoothing forecasts, which are then compared under a hypothetical trading strategy. The trading returns indicate that this market is relatively efficient at least in the short term but that because of the all or nothing payout structure of a FRO, there may exist small arbitrage opportunities. VL - 7 SN - 978-0-85724-201-3, 978-0-85724-202-0/1477-4070 DO - 10.1108/S1477-4070(2010)0000007015 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/S1477-4070(2010)0000007015 AU - Keller Christopher M. ED - Kenneth D. Lawrence ED - Ronald K. Klimberg PY - 2010 Y1 - 2010/01/01 TI - Forecasting the 2008 U.S. presidential election using options data T2 - Advances in Business and Management Forecasting T3 - Advances in Business and Management Forecasting PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 173 EP - 182 Y2 - 2024/04/24 ER -