Heck, the deb and equity markets are messy, why not speculate on big storms?
When tropical storms like Dean start churning in the Atlantic, a small cadre of hurricane speculators springs into action.
They’re out to make money by predicting the path, the strength or the damage from the season’s big storms. However, researchers at the University of Miami and University of Iowa hope some of the speculators will do something else: help us understand how people decide where a hurricane is headed.
This is somewhat interesting, especially for those of us down in the South (it does not, however, replace the excellent forecasting from the National Hurricane Center).
You can see the experimental University of Miami/University of Iowa hurricane futures market here.
Alex Eckelberry