are speculative markets created for the purpose of making predictions about future events. And they are so powerful because they are often accurate. In his book , James Surowiecki describes this phenomenon:

"Under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them. Groups do not need to be dominated by exceptionally intelligent people in order to be smart. Even if most of the people within the group are not especially well-informed or rational, it can still reach a collectively wise decision."

While the market is down today, prediction market users seem to think that the Dow Jones will rise, and soon. The community is currently betting favorably in The Industry Standard's prediction "? The current consensus stands at 65%.

The Standard community is also betting against the negative Dow Jones prediction "? For that prediction, community consensus stands at a mere 27%.

A quick look at some other prediction markets give us some additional insight into the crowd. The Predicitify market "?" (April 30, 2009) shows that out of 151 predictions, 76% of the community is betting that the Dow will close somewhere over 8,000.