
Ask HN: Who's making money during the election madness? - edge17
Lot&#x27;s of attention on social media, traditional media, etc. Who&#x27;s cashing in on all this? Who benefits the most?
======
sean_patel
A black guy selling "Make America Great Again" Merchandise. Like seriously.
Saw him on CNN too. Source => "Meet the man making money off Donald Trump"
[http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/...](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/08/27/meet-
man-making-money-off-donald-trump/89476416/)

Trump's campaign also cashed in on it. Related: "Anything with Trump name is
selling fast" => [http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/16/news/economy/trump-name-
sell...](http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/16/news/economy/trump-name-sells-hat-
tshirt/)

~~~
akerro
>A black guy selling "Make America Great Again" Merchandise. Like seriously.
Saw him on CNN too

Probably you shouldn't watch CNN too much about politics.

~~~
sean_patel
> Probably you shouldn't watch CNN too much about politics.

Never said I did. I was scrolling through the channels on my TV and happened
to see it. It caught my attention cos it was a black guy selling pro-Trump
stuff at, and to a hostile all-white crowd.

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yummyfajitas
After Brexit, I waited for the inevitable market overreaction. I took long
positions in British ETFs. When the market recovered from the post-Brexit
slump, I made money.

I'm betting that Trump _isn 't_ the disaster that the markets are currently
predicting. I plan to do the same thing today.

~~~
icebraining
Damn, I wanted to do the same, but I only had spare change free.

How are you betting against the "Trumpocalypse"? Is there anything more
specific than broad market ETFs?

~~~
yummyfajitas
For the Trumpocalypse, I'm just carefully timing my purchases of SPY and a
couple of others.

My general strategy is to accumulate SPY and a few other securities, so in
reality I'm just reallocating my broader portfolio in the direction of SPY
right now, and moving some purchases from the future to today.

------
politician
Both social and traditional news media are structured to cash in on
unique/improbable/dramatic events automatically. Look forward to a surge of
retrospectives from all sides competing for attention that is monetized
through ad spend.

As far as the advertisers? The ad buyers will be able to funnel
outraged/ecstatic dollars into various foundations and funds. The various big
brands will most likely begin shipping "feel good, come together" style ads
that ostensibly encourage "healing" while simultaneously improving brand
perception/equity that drives sales.

The small fries are the bookies, the forex traders, and the merch hawkers.

~~~
dualogy
> Both social and traditional news media are structured to cash in on
> unique/improbable/dramatic events automatically.

How so, politician? Anything by design? Or simply the human nature to consume
more media in "watershed" events? This could explain some of the media
positioning in the last 18 months or so..

------
masonic
All private media (print, radio, and TV) make a lot from ad buys. At the local
level, political consultants and mailhouses (those who print and send those
glossy mailers -- the original tree-killing meme) make their living off
elections.

~~~
M_Grey
In the long run, it's going to be an absolute bloodbath though.

------
crypt1d
There was a news article about teens in Macedonia making up to 3k a day by
writing clickbait/gossip articles on Trump and cashing in on ads.

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kornish
A friend of a friend had the chance to take out $1000 on 1000:1 odds 18 months
ago on Donald Trump being president. He should have taken it...

~~~
jinfiesto
Wtf? Why would anyone not take this bet? Even if you didn't think Trump was
going to win (I didn't) this is obviously absurd EV.

~~~
wtfishackernews
Because $1000 is a lot of money for some people

~~~
phyalow
No its I give you ten dollars, if trump wins you give me ten thousand dollars,
else you keep my ten.

~~~
wtfishackernews
I was under the impression that it had to be $1000, but it doesn't matter
anyway. If you bet $10 on everything that seems highly unlikely but may pay
out a lot, you will end up losing money very quickly.

~~~
phyalow
Why do you say that? its called selling risk premium... I don't see many
insurance underwriters blowing up!

------
threeseed
Day traders. Gold rallied. US dollar and the Mexican peso plummeted.

I and many others made a decent amount.

------
cardigan
Doomsday prepper websites

------
ryuker16
Bookies taking bets on the election.

Only a moron would have bet on trump with 80% chance of a Hilary win
estimated. Heck, even trump clearly didn't think he would win judging by his
claims the election wold be rigged before it began.

~~~
tomp
Only a moron would believe such odds, especially after happened to Brexit
(odds were the same on the night before the result).

~~~
ryuker16
Up until a few hours before trump took Florida, the traditional news sites
were discussing how big a sweep for Clinton and if Republic would loose the
house.

------
nathan_f77
I was honestly going to place a bet on Hillary winning the election, I thought
it would be a guaranteed way to make money. I didn't end up doing it. Honestly
I actually wish that I did, even in hindsight.

~~~
aaronchall
You, given perfect knowledge, would choose to lose money? You must have more
money than sense.

~~~
nathan_f77
Yep, just $100 or so. I'm not a US citizen, so I can't vote. It would just be
a statement. In fact, maybe I'll donate $100 to a climate change NGO right
now.

There we go, that's a better statement:
[https://imgur.com/a/lPWRw](https://imgur.com/a/lPWRw)

~~~
aaronchall
That makes more sense. I'm glad we had this discussion.

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debunn
Biotech ETFs are way up today (almost 10%) - it looks like with the fear of
Hillary capping medical costs now gone, a lot of folks are seeing more long
term value:

[http://finance.yahoo.com/quote/IBB?ltr=1](http://finance.yahoo.com/quote/IBB?ltr=1)
[http://finance.yahoo.com/quote/XBI?ltr=1](http://finance.yahoo.com/quote/XBI?ltr=1)

------
brobinson
I made about $200 trading a small amount of money on the forex markets while I
watched the live coverage. I was surprised the yen didn't drop that much, but
I also missed the article about the BOJ saying they would intervene.

------
wkoszek
I could bet these guys made some money:
[https://senddickstodonald.com/](https://senddickstodonald.com/)

~~~
i336_
Oh wow. I would _really_ like to be a fly on the wall to see what kind of mail
the White House has been receiving for the last however many years...

Although it probably gets old after a week.

------
gadders
I put £60 on at 7/2, which was particularly good as it was £30 from me and a
£30 matching bet from the bookmaker as a new customer.

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martin-adams
YouTubers making parody videos. Social Blade estimates a viral video of about
6m views could earn between $3k to $23k in ad revenue.

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hkmurakami
Folks shorting stock futures.

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wtfishackernews
Alex Jones and friends.

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lumberjack
You could probably have made some spare change if you got a few decent domains
and hired some people to right blogspam for you all throughout this election.

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krona
Pretty much anyone who benefits from more loose monetary policy from the US.
UK stocks heavily exposed to the US market are up 4-5% (or at least, mine
are.)

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sagivo
stock brokers will have a sweet day tomorrow while the market crashes.

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id122015
Attention--w-h-o-r-e-s make money during such events.

