Robinhood introduces election trading, allowing users to purchase contracts on Harris or Trump.

• The company announced that users can trade a Kamala Harris or Donald Trump contract starting Monday, provided they meet certain criteria, such as being a U.S. citizen.
• Robinhood enters the crowded politics prediction markets field, which has grown this month following Kalshi's victory in a key ruling against the CFTC, which sought to halt election outcome trading.

The prediction betting game has attracted a new player, Upstart broker, who has announced that users can start trading the 2024 presidential election, which is just eight days away.

The Robinhood Derivatives unit and ForecastEx, operated by the company, are offering the trading of Kamala Harris or Donald Trump contracts starting Monday, provided that certain criteria are met, such as being a U.S. citizen.

Robinhood enters the crowded politics prediction markets industry, which experienced growth this month following a key ruling by platform Kalshi against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The CFTC is currently appealing the decision. Following this, Interactive Brokers introduced various political contracts, including those related to the election outcome.

This year, the election markets have sparked controversy, with some expressing concern that low trading volume could distort the markets. Last week, international platform Polymarket revealed that a single French user had used four accounts to purchase millions of dollars worth of the Trump contract. However, Polymarket stated that an investigation found no evidence of market manipulation.

Robinhood stated that event contracts enable individuals to make real-time decisions and access a new asset class, thereby democratizing events as they occur. Currently, only presidential election contracts are available for trading on the system.

Political polls and odds and gambling platforms employ different methodologies, so they cannot be considered interchangeable.