UsableMarkets

For those that follow prediction markets, the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) is instantly recognized as one of the oldest and most popular on the internet. But despite their past success they have not stood still. In this interview with Alex Costakis, Managing Director of Hollywood Stock Exchange, we discuss the recent redesign, the challenges of redesigning a major website with a dedicated and passionate audience, and their plans for a real money version of HSX.

UsableMarkets: You recently redesigned HSX. What motivated you to do this?

Alex Costakis: We’ve been operating with the same technology for nearly 10 years. Quite frankly, the site was long-long over due for an overhaul. We wanted to improve the site’s reliability and performance. Our main objective in the re-launch was to transition smoothly to a new infrastructure. This includes migrating over a decade’s worth of point level trading data for over 10,000 securities to a completely new database. The redesign gives us a completely new code base to work with for making rapid changes and for adding new features. We’ve modernized the site’s design with a crisp clean contemporary look and a new, intuitive, navigation.

UM: This redesign follows an earlier redesign that provoked a bit of a backlash amongst your users. Can you talk about what you learned from that experience and how you applied that lesson to the current redesign?

AC: Yes, there certainly was a bit of backlash when we went live with the earlier design. There were many takeaways. We learned to bring the community into the design process for a much-much longer period of time. We also learned not to try to do everything for everyone in a site’s initial re-launch. We opened a development site to the public in April, with no secured access required, so that anyone at anytime could comment by email or in the public forums. We encouraged our traders to visit the development site. We asked them questions and we made changes. We received many excellent suggestions. I thank each and every one of our traders for that!

UM: You mentioned that you invited traders to help you in the new design, and invited their feedback. During this process, did you learn anything about traders that surprised you?

AC: Well, not that it was a surprise, but once again we confirmed there is a lot of passion out there for HSX! In fact, I’d call it a love for HSX, which makes us very proud. We learned from our traders that they are in general very open to our making changes to the site, but their primary concern was to retain the underlying HSX trading experience when making these changes. Bring over core, proven, functionality and grow from there. There were many suggestions about page layout, colors, features and other attributes, that were very helpful.

UM: What were some of the top features requested by HSX users for the new site? Were there any features traders requested that you couldn’t do?

AC: Ease-of-trading through multiple points of contact was most frequently requested. Revising portfolio with new sorting capabilities, adding an enhanced league structure, and embedding third party content and trader comments were popular requests as well. We wanted as much universal buy-in at launch as possible, so adding new features will be a gradual process. We have a list of features we are evaluating and we encourage more recommendations. Once we have fully completed this transition, we’ll advance the site’s feature set based on our community’s feedback, current trends and growth objectives for the business.

UM: How one trades on the new HSX is a bit different than on the old site. Can you describe what those changes are, and why you made those changes?

AC: The fundamental trading method and methodology remains the same. HSX is the longest continuously operating commercial virtual market out there, so the longitudinal nature of our data is valuable. It’s one of a kind. We were doubly sure to retain the integrity of trading, however, we did make changes to the user interface. For example, we introduced a drop-down trading box off of the main navigation, so its there on every page. The past design had a persistent location for a trading box but it did not appear on all pages. We think the drop down is an improvement.

Trading on the old HSX

Trading on the new HSX

UM: You’ve submitted an application to the CFTC for permission to operate a real money market in movie futures. HSX has been successful for a while as a play money market. What’s the importance of creating a real money market for movie futures?

AC: Creating a real money market is important. Think about it this way. HSX was originally conceptualized with the intent of going into real-money trading of movies. We know from our many years of experience and the trader feedback we receive that there is a market out there for real-money trading. Many people have knowledge of films, and they would like the opportunity to profit from box office earnings. Once approved by the CFTC, through the Cantor Exchange, we will provide them the platform for trading movie futures contracts.

UM: What’s the status of the application? Has the government’s renewed interest in market oversight slowed down the application?

AC: Yes, you’re right. Financial innovation right now is under increased scrutiny by Washington. However the regulator has indicated to us that this product is not being affected by that. Although I’d like to give you a definite timeline, we think we’ll be trading within 90 days.

UM: Do you play on HSX? What’s your biggest position?

AC: Heck yeah I do! I went heavy into the summer blockbusters. I never give out my secrets… but I like buying early and holding long. I’ve already made a killing on The Hobbit and Iron Man 2.

UM: Thanks for your time, Alex.