Hollywood Stock Exchange

E-Hollywood Commerce with a fun twist

Everyone and their mom want to play the stock market. Some, however, do not simply want to play, they want to succeed in the market. I needed to succeed in the market so I could pay for my student loans. I attend the ninth most expensive private university in the United States and the only idea I came up with to pay for these loans was to sell all I had, open a Scottrade account and risk it all on Apple Inc stock. Luckily that turned me a healthy 300% profit in one year. I read books on day-trading, but my foundation of stock trading came from a website I used since I was a kid – hsx.com.

HSX stands for Hollywood Stock Exchange and it is where anyone can open an account and trade fictitious stocks for movies either in theaters or in production. The best part is that with this website, people can learn about the concept of options, mutual funds and regular stock purchases.

Notice the image above. The stock price of Indiana Jones IV is similar to how the stock price of Apple Inc is priced. Apple's stock will be priced based upon future profitability and the same is for my Indiana Jones IV stock. The price of stock at hsx.com is determined by the total domestic box office a film garnishes in its first four weeks of release in the United States (International box office receipts are not factored into a film’s stock price). For example, if Indiana Jones IV makes 250 million dollars in its first four weeks, the price will be 250 hsx dollars. Currently, Indiana Jones is selling for 270, meaning that you think the movie will make 270 million in the first 4 weekends of its release. To the left is an image of how you trade. Similar to investment sites, you have options ranging from selling, buying, shorting or covering a stock.

This site is perfect for anyone interested in getting a free tutorial in stock trading and doing it in an environment based on the entertainment industry. I hope to be a literary agent in Hollywood one day, so I keep up to date with all future movie releases through this site (amongst others). A side note - through this site I have learned some interesting statistics about the finances behind the film industry as well. One of my favorite personal discoveries from this site is that on average, you can estimate a movie’s overall gross based upon its first weekend sales – the average total cue is 2.9 times the 3-day opening weekend gross – *this is a generalization that does not apply to all films. This equations comes into play after the opening weekend of a film. If Star Wars makes 50 million from Friday-to-Sunday, then the stock price will be adjusted from whatever it closed at Thursday night to the new total of $145.

This site showcases how the technology used in online stock-trading can be used for educational purposes. Through HSX.com I have learned the basics of financial markets all while keeping up-to-date on movie releases in a fun and effective way. With social sites and fantasy sports sites becoming more and more popular with audiences online, I think HSX is presented with an opportunity to evolve into a destination for people looking for a fun way to keep up with the industry while learning some of the vocabulary used in investing.


BELOW IS A SCREENSHOT OF MY ACCOUNT AT HSX.COM







I started my first account in 6th grade with the upcoming release of Pearl Harbor. My account name is even PEARLHARBOR1 and out of the over 1,000,000 accounts, I am just under the 2500 player in regards to my overall rank (my rank is 2339). I strongly recommend this site to anyone who wants to experience Hollywood from an investor’s prospective.