Broward News & Opinion

The smartest play in political markets right now is putting money on red. No, not Republican red. We're talking about the other red. Deep communist red.

While the consultant class chases the usual 2028 names, a high-profit trade is quietly building around New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for the Democratic nomination for President in 2028. Right now, the market is pricing Mamdani like a local politician trapped in municipal grind. He's trading between one to two cents. Most people see that and move on.

But if you read the order book and understand anything about politics, the red bet has the best risk-reward profile on the board.

Cheap and deep, and that matters

This trade isn't just cheap. It's deep. There are more than 1.4 million bids parked at one cent and more than 1.2 million contracts offered at two cents. In trader terms, that's high float. You can load size and offload without moving price.

That kind of depth changes the math. If you think the better markets are underpricing him, you can build a position and wait without getting punished by thin liquidity. This is the opposite of what happened with Casey DeSantis, where a trader trying to place a bet ran into size issues and spiked the price up to 32 cents on less than $2500. In comparison, you can move 10x the amount of capital into the Mamdani contract and not move the needle one tick.

The perpetual campaigner

For Mamdani, the win was never about running City Hall. We are over a month into his term and he keeps campaign-style press events rolling with creators and digital surrogates. He treats conflict as content. He keeps campaign volunteers mobilized to knock on doors and harass the New York State Legislature. He picks fights with Albany he knows he will lose, then reframes the loss as proof of "struggle" and momentum.

As they say online, "he's running!" (for something)

Here's the trade logic in plain English.

At this stage, you're essentially buying optionality on relevance.

The market is pricing him off municipal headlines, budget stress, service complaints. Day-to-day city friction. If someone in his orbit signals national intent, or if a credible 2028 trial balloon leaks, one or two cent paper can reprice fast into the five to eight cent range or higher.

A 2.5x to 4x return is the kind of asymmetric move smart speculators hunt. And because the book is deep, the move is actually tradable, not just theoretical.

When the national focus shifts to 2028, the market will stop looking at trash pickup stats and start looking at "personality" and "mobilization." Mamdani is polarizing, recognizable, and built for clip culture.

That's fuel in a national cycle.

So, the governing mode isn't coming. Mamdani is playing a different game. And right now, it's the best game in town worth betting on.