Create a standard set of stock-market index questions

These dozen or so questions would be automatically posted at set times each business day and would have identical wording from day to day, which the computer would automatically adjust to fit the day's circumstances.

Part of this set should be questions end-of-the-week, end-of-the-month, and-of-the-quarter, and end-of-the-year questions, with more detail than just Up or Down. E.g., they should say Up 1%-2%, or Up 100-200 points.

I'd agree with this. Actually, there are probably a number of questions that recur at regular intervals, even beyond the various stock markets. These recurring questions could have standardized settlement addresses as well.

PS: There should be no 12-hour delay rule in effect on such standardized questions. (This is another reason for implementing them.)

I tried to do something like this by creating questions that mirror the existing ones or - in the case of "new" questions - posting the same thing for all the markets I've seen here.

Good idea. But I think it should be handled "officially" (from Hubdub headquarters), to assure that this will always always be done and done consistently, and to allow the 12-hour-rule to be voided for those items. It will also avoid the situation where day-trading questions are posted days in advance, which can be confusing.

We are looking at some new guidelines regarding stock market questions. Some of the more simple questions (like will DJIA open up?) could possibly be posted automatically...not sure about the tech end of that, but it could be looked into. That would take a load off some of the regular creators of these questions. I know I've messed up a time or two and forgotten to pose a regular question and wound up either not getting it in at all, or having it fall within that 12 hour window. CatEds and SUs could still come in and add background to these questions as needed to better inform the players.

This is one of the areas we are looking at for automating questions. Currently we only have automatic questions for sport, and we are assessing the quality of their starting odds, and their usefulness in terms of attracting predictions and producing compelling content. There is a danger if we create too many questions that there are no predictions and everybody just ends up betting on their own thing with no real community. I imagine that the more obvious questions will end up automated however, if only to reduce the effort required from category editors etc

If quarterly questions are created, then there should be no monthly questions created for the last month in the quarter. (Because the quarterly question would become equivalent to a monthly question at that point.)