How do you become trustworthy.
Why should I give this "website" my money?
Tommy

Tommy... I'm more sure about the mechanics than what it would look like. I don't imagine it being a website. I imagine it being a storefront. There are TONS of websites focusing on traditional investing. I'm looking for much smaller investments/bets from more people... particularly the people you are talking about who are less likely to trust websites (/aren't good at using them) or who don't have enough money to be buying and selling short-term but want the excitement of it.

People are reluctant to trust websites. But if they were dealing with real people... still think it'll be a problem?

The reason conventional brokers are reluctant to address small investors is that the payback for them is so small. Gambling and lotteries are much easier to manage than stock market investment, and I think you're going to find it hard to make any money offering individual services to people who only want to 'bet' small amounts.

While I understand your concern, Phil, I wonder if we're talking about the same thing. We certainly wouldn't be offering bets on whatever you'd like to place them on. The idea is to offer only a few options. "the few most volatile stocks with preset buy/sell times around scheduled events" with preset buy and sell times. While individuals would be betting small amounts, you'd only be making one purchase for the lot of them. They can bet on MU today. It will be bought at 2:00 pm. There is a scheduled announcement about a new product at 3:00 pm. We sell at 3:30.

You put in 15 dollars on that (and 10 on another option that starts at 3:00), along with 30 other people (or hundreds). We make the purchase at once with all the collected bets and we sell at once, with all the collected bets.

Is that clearer? Or does your concern still exist?

There are plenty of online discount brokerages that offer options trading...

From sharebuilder.com
"
An option is a financial instrument that you can buy and sell with the goal of generating other income on stocks you already own or to speculate on stock price movements. At ShareBuilder, we have taken steps to simplify what many consider to be a very complicated investing topic.

There are two basic types of options: calls and puts. Depending on your outlook on a specific stock or on the market as a whole, you can use either option type as part of an investing strategy to achieve your goals.
"

Options on stocks you don't own are called long calls and long puts.

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You would either need to be your own brokerage or rely on another broker. First option... good luck... second option... expect to pay a premium.

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I think being new to the stock market, you would be in over your head and bitting off more than you can chew. I don't quite know the mechanics of running a gambling operation, so maybe you know something I don't.

I don't really like the idea of exploiting people (especially people's addictions...). I think it is wrong and your time could be spent more productively for society as a whole.... However I also know that if this was setup you could make a lot of money from. So with that in mind I voted it down from a logistics stand point and not based on a moral stand point.

I think an online brokerage with small trading fees and a report service that would predict which stocks would be most volatile/had the most important announcements would be the way to go.

It is added overhead, but the trading fees would be very, very small, and the report service would be the same regardless how big the setup got.

Again, this wouldn't be a traditional brokerage... it's about a very limited set of "investment" options over the very short term.

Thanks for comments everyone.

Simon I actually like it.

I looked at doing trading but what a bundle of things you need to know and look outfor when trading! Just the whole concept of what price to sell a stock at and what price to offer to buy is too demanding for people that have some money but don't trust brokers and don't want or have the time to learn all this stuff.

Betting is the trade of ordinary folks, and to be able to give stocktrading a front as simple as betting is a very good idea.

There could be options for the betters to keep the bet running for weeks if the stock seem to be steadily rising.

You get 5 stars from me.

Best
Torgrot