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Far from the madding crowd: collective wisdom in prediction markets

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  • G. Bottazzi
  • D. Giachini

Abstract

We investigate market selection and bet pricing in a repeated prediction market model. We derive the conditions for long-run survival of more than one agent (the crowd) and quantify the information content of prevailing prices in the case of fractional Kelly traders with heterogeneous beliefs. It turns out that, apart some non-generic situations, prices do not converge, neither almost surely nor on average, to true probabilities, nor are they always nearer to the truth than the beliefs of all surviving agents. This implies that, in general, prediction market prices are not maximum likelihood estimators of the true probabilities. However, when more than one agent survives, the average price emerging from a prediction market approximates the true probability with lower information loss than any individual belief.

Suggested Citation

  • G. Bottazzi & D. Giachini, 2019. "Far from the madding crowd: collective wisdom in prediction markets," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(9), pages 1461-1471, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:quantf:v:19:y:2019:i:9:p:1461-1471
    DOI: 10.1080/14697688.2019.1622285
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    Cited by:

    1. Dindo, Pietro & Massari, Filippo, 2020. "The wisdom of the crowd in dynamic economies," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 15(4), November.
    2. Michele Vodret & Iacopo Mastromatteo & Bence Tóth & Michael Benzaquen, 2023. "Microfounding GARCH models and beyond: a Kyle-inspired model with adaptive agents," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 18(3), pages 599-625, July.
    3. Fontanelli, Luca & Guerini, Mattia & Napoletano, Mauro, 2023. "International trade and technological competition in markets with dynamic increasing returns," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    4. Vandin, Andrea & Giachini, Daniele & Lamperti, Francesco & Chiaromonte, Francesca, 2022. "Automated and distributed statistical analysis of economic agent-based models," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    5. Mikhail Zhitlukhin, 2021. "Asymptotically optimal strategies in a diffusion approximation of a repeated betting game," Papers 2108.11998, arXiv.org.
    6. Daniele Giachini, 2018. "Rationality and Asset Prices under Belief Heterogeneity," LEM Papers Series 2018/07, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    7. Andrea Vandin & Daniele Giachini & Francesco Lamperti & Francesca Chiaromonte, 2020. "Automated and Distributed Statistical Analysis of Economic Agent-Based Models," LEM Papers Series 2020/31, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    8. Bottazzi, Giulio & Giachini, Daniele, 2017. "Wealth and price distribution by diffusive approximation in a repeated prediction market," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 471(C), pages 473-479.
    9. Giulio Bottazzi & Pietro Dindo & Daniele Giachini, 2019. "Momentum and reversal in financial markets with persistent heterogeneity," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 455-487, December.
    10. Fabio Della Rossa & Lorenzo Giannini & Pietro DeLellis, 2020. "Herding or wisdom of the crowd? Controlling efficiency in a partially rational financial market," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-16, September.
    11. Mikhail Zhitlukhin, 2022. "A continuous-time asset market game with short-lived assets," Finance and Stochastics, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 587-630, July.
    12. Bottazzi, Giulio & Dindo, Pietro, 2022. "Drift criteria for persistence of discrete stochastic processes on the line," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    13. Giulio Bottazzi & Daniele Giachini, 2018. "New Results on Betting Strategies, Market Selection, and the Role of Luck," LEM Papers Series 2018/08, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.

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