Former president Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris throughout the 2024 U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5, 2024. Whereas voting is over, you presumably can nonetheless wager on this presidential election by way of two trendy on-line brokerage platforms—Robinhood and Interactive Brokers. Betting on every brokerage platforms closes on Jan. 6, 2025.

To wager on the elections, you merely need to have an account with each of these brokers, then fund the account using any of the supported deposit methods. You’ll then be succesful to wager on the presidential election outcomes by way of a partnership every brokers have with ForecastEx, a registered Designated Contract Market (DCM) and By-product Clearing Group (DCO) for Forecast Contracts.

The thought of election betting simply is not new, although historically, any makes an try to provide such bets have struggled to get earlier regulatory scrutiny throughout the U.S. That each one modified in October 2024, and now U.S. purchasers have quite a lot of strategies to securely and legally participate throughout the election movement.

Which Brokers Provide Election Betting?

Interactive Brokers (IBKR)

Interactive Brokers rolled out election betting on Oct. 3, 2024. The company, by the use of its affiliate ForecastEx, provides “Forecast Contacts” on the presidential race, U.S. Dwelling and Senate majority races, and heated State Senate elections. Prices differ from 2 cents to 99 cents per contract, and every “positive” and “no” contracts could be discovered for purchase. IBKR prices no prices to commerce Forecast Contracts. Election betting by way of IBKR closes on Jan. 6, 2025.

Robinhood

Robinhood started offering election betting on Oct. 28, 2024. The company launched the rollout of presidential election event contracts, moreover in partnership with ForecastEx. Not like IBKR, Robinhood solely provides “positive” contracts, permits purchasers to private the “positive” contract for only one candidate, and prices a 1 cent payment per contract. Robinhood closes its presidential election betting on Jan. 6, 2025, with the payout date set for Jan. 8, 2025.

How Election Betting Works

Election betting makes use of event contracts—spinoff contracts that allow people to take a position on the binary closing results of a particular event, similar to a political race. The contracts are tied to a straightforward “event question” and a binary reply similar to “positive” or “no.”

Robinhood and Interactive Brokers solely allow speculators to wager on the following two questions regarding the 2024 election:

• Will Donald Trump win the 2024 U.S. presidential election?
• Will Kamala Harris win the 2024 U.S. presidential election?

You can purchase a “positive” or a “no” contract for each of these questions. Each contract is quoted in $0.01 increments, and priced as a lot as $1.00, with each cent efficiently representing a 1% probability that the event will occur. An correct reply pays $1, whereas an incorrect reply pays $0.

For example, on Oct. 30, 2024, Interactive Brokers equipped a “positive” contract on Donald Trump profitable for 63 cents. This means should you occur to paid 63 cents, you’d receive $1 with a Trump win and $0 with a Trump loss.

Alternatively, a “no” contract costs 35 cents. Whenever you bought this and Donald Trump misplaced, you’d receive $1, or $0 is he gained.

Tips about learn how to Open a Brokerage Account to Start Betting on the Election

Step 1: Select a Vendor

Look at completely completely different brokers to hunt out one which best suits your desires as an investor. Some key components to ponder are commissions and prices, the number of tradable belongings and gadgets, availability of superior evaluation devices, user-friendliness, and your particular person shopping for and promoting sort.

Step 2: Register an Account

Fill out the online utility, providing the required non-public data like your take care of, Social Security amount, and employment particulars.

Step 3: Fund Your Account

As quickly as your account is ready, fund it by the use of any supported deposit approach.

Choices to Using an On-line Vendor to Wager on the 2024 Election

Kalshi

Primarily based in 2018 with an app that launched in 2019, Kalshi is the first regulated prediction market change throughout the U.S. Whereas the company is in an ongoing dispute with the Commodity Futures Shopping for and promoting Payment (CFTC)—the payment argues that Kalshi’s presidential race contracts characterize taking part in and will undermine election integrity—an interim court docket docket sided with Kalshi allowing the company to start out offering bets on the 2024 presidential race on Oct. 3, 2024.

Steadily Requested Questions (FAQs)