When will the average price for gas drop below $4 a gallon?

Nice question. You just gave hope to two-hundred million people.

@bobbyedwards - that article concerns regular gasoline. This market is tracking 'gasoline-all grades' as reported here: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_gnd_dcus_nus_w.htm

The average price for 'gasoline-all grades' is currently $411.8

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/28/news/economy/gasoline/?postversion=2008072807

latest numbers

In many areas of Phx, AZ gas is less than $4 a gal. Hopefully it will keep going down. =)

@bayoubear, superusers and admins:

HELP!!!

This question is being spitzered!

Per the background info:
The price for 'gasoline-all grades' as reported by the Energy Information Administration has been above $4 for five weeks now, dating back to the June 2 report.

When will this price drop below $4?

Data is the weekly report from the EIA for gasoline-all grades, an average of all types of gasoline blends sold in the US.

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_gnd_dcus_nus_w.htm

The price for 'gasoline-all grades' as reported by the Energy Information Administration is currently $401.0 but users are requesting settlement based on regular gas price as reported by other sources.

This isn't really being spitzered - just misunderstood by a temporary admin. I'm sure the new admin will be much more careful and deliberate with settlement (ahem). I agree this was settled incorrectly. I've sent the following flag: Rob - this was settled incorrectly. The settlement source was http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_gnd_dcus_nus_w.htm and is at 4.01 today. Its updated weekly, so there's good money that this will settle as next week, but not this week. Please reopen the question.

Totally agree with f_o_f and jenni.
The settlement source was defined at the time of market creation, and has been adhered to since then.

Thank you Jenni!
Thank you Cognos!

Thanks for looking after this for me...it has always been based on the All Grades Average . . . perhaps at some time we could look at changing it to being the EIA results for Regular Gas only, but since we've been doing it this way for a while it probably should stay...or at least through Labor Day or whenever we reach a point where gas has dropped to its minimal level....but if we make the change then...it WILL be clearly stated so that everyone understands....personally, today I paid $3.709 for regular...even the premium was under $4 in Mississippi!

PS...I put in a request to reopen this market...according to my specifications, the price released today by the EIA for Gasoline-All Grade was $4.010 . . . most likely it will happen next Monday, unless we have a hurricane in the Gulf or the Nigerians do something else crazy

Thank you, bayoubear!

This question has been reopened.

@fingers_of_fury, you can stop throwing a temper tantrum and praising everyone who agrees with you. You got your way and I have to agree your right. Those of us who misunderstood the question didn’t obviously do our due diligence and read the question thoroughly.
I, like many others, read the title of the proposition and read the settlement details which state: “As reported by a major mainstream news source....” Funny thing, I called the Energy Information Administration (there’s a very nice lady who answers the phone) and they don’t consider themselves a “major mainstream news source”. They are a statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Energy. Their mission is to provide policy-neutral data, forecasts, and analyses to promote sound policy making. I didn’t bother to call CNN, USA Today, The New York Times or the Chicago Tribune, but I would bet that they consider themselves a “major mainstream news source”.

I’m ok with the fact that I lost play money on this question. I’m not ok with you trying to make everybody that thinks this question should have been settled sound stupid. The question was obviously ambiguous.

And your comment “...but users are requesting settlement based on regular gas price as reported by other sources.” No, we where requesting settlement based on “major mainstream news sources” not "other sources". The title of this wager says “When will the average price for gas drop below $4 a gallon?” and again, the settlement details state: “As reported by a major mainstream news source....” Not the as reported by the EIA.

Oh and your term “Spitzered” To be spitzered means to spend years prosecuting the nefarious doings of others in order to be elected governor of a populous state only to be exposed as a hypocritical philanderer who paid a prostitute way, way too much money to meet him in Washington for some nefarious doings. So I don’t see where this question has been “Spitzered”.

Bayoubear I have always liked you questions and will continue to play them, I realize it’s very hard to write a clear concise wager and after all this is supposed to be for fun.

@bobby - Spitzered has entered the Hubdub vocabulary as a question that is clarified/misclarified/commented to death. The market related to Spitzer's resignation was.. um.. contentious.. to settle. So although I disagree about calling this market a "spitzer" (as there was a simple mistake, quickly corrected) its not quite the insult it might seem.

You're also correct that a lot of this headache might have been saved if bayoubear had put his settlement source under settlement sources where it belongs instead of the background where it can be lost. (note to bayoubear for future markets) Those of us who have been playing these questions for a while know what the source is, but its unfair for new users to have it buried and hard to find.

Just a note: Regardless of the background info--
Settlement details: As reported by a major mainstream news source.

@ Erik -- you're right. I have flagged the market to have the Settlement Details match the information in the market background.