Politex // Westminster Influence
⬡ Paper TradingHow It Works
Politex is a paper trading political influence platform. Every UK MP is a tradable asset. Their share price is determined by a real-time influence score built from five structural components and a media sentiment overlay — each with its own volatility profile. Price moves every time Westminster moves.
650 MPs
Real Parliament data
Influence Score
0 – 100
Share Price
Score × £0.10
Trade
Buy · Sell · Hold
Driven by live Parliament votes, Hansard debates, and AI-classified news — one shared market for all users
The Influence Score
Each MP scores across six components, capped at 100. The first five are structural — they reflect real parliamentary standing and only move when something substantive happens: a vote, a reshuffle, a speech, a bill. The sixth measures how the media is covering this MP right now — it can go up or down fast, but it doesn't last. This matters for trading: a headline can move a price today, but only a parliamentary event changes the underlying score permanently.
Structural Components (5)
These 5 metrics move only when real parliamentary events occur — votes, reshuffles, speeches, bills. Changes are permanent until the next event. These form the bedrock of an MP's score.
Formal position within the parliamentary hierarchy. Every MP earns a base score — Backbench MP (7), Shadow Cabinet (11), Junior Minister (12), Minister of State (16), Cabinet Minister (20), Prime Minister (22). Shadow ministers score below their government counterparts as they hold no executive power.
What moves it: Reshuffles, promotions, demotions, resignations.
Parliamentary clout built through tenure, select committee memberships, committee chair roles, green and white paper sponsorships, and private member's bills tabled.
What moves it: New committees, bills introduced, parliamentary speeches.
Seniority within their own party — from Backbench MP through Party Spokesperson, Shadow Cabinet, up to Party Leader. Reflects individual standing inside the party, not the party's overall size.
What moves it: Leadership elections, party discipline events, defections.
Weight of the ministerial department held — Treasury and Home Office outrank Culture and Sport. Applies equally to government ministers and shadow counterparts. Non-ministers score zero here.
What moves it: Cabinet reshuffles, department mergers, shadow promotions.
Derived from the majority margin at the most recent general election under first-past-the-post. This score is effectively fixed between elections — it only resets after a general election or by-election.
What moves it: General elections, by-elections only.
Media Sentiment (1)
This single but highly volatile metric captures the news cycle — the Politex Engine gathers news feeds from across the board and calculates media sentiment on every MP every 30 minutes.
Measures how the media is covering this MP right now. Positive coverage pushes it up, bad headlines push it down — but unlike the five structural scores, it doesn't last. It decays 20% per day back toward zero without new coverage, and a story in one outlet carries a third of the weight of one covered across three or more. Scandal or glory can fade as the cycle moves. A parliamentary record doesn't.
What moves it: AI-classified articles from BBC, Guardian, Telegraph, Mail, Sky News, FT, Express, GB News.
Score formula
Structural components are permanent · Media Sentiment decays daily
Share Pricing
Every MP's share price is a direct function of their Influence Score. The multiplier is set at £0.10 per point, placing shares in the £1 – £10 range. This is designed to match the paper trading experience to real-money prices on live launch — your £500 paper balance buys a meaningful portfolio, not just one share.
Pricing formula
Score × £0.10
Price range
Score 10 → £1.00
Score 85 → £8.50
Paper balance
£500.00
Enough to build a real portfolio across multiple MPs
What moves the price
- →Parliamentary events: votes, rebellions, PMB stages, Hansard contributions — move structural scores permanently
- →Media coverage: moves the Media Sentiment score — decays 20% per day back toward zero without new coverage. Serious stories can also shift structural scores.
- →User trading: buy and sell pressure shifts prices directly through market mechanics
- →Full attribution: every price move is logged — source, direction, and score delta visible on the Events tab and each MP's profile
Market Events
Every price move on Politex is driven by a real-world event — not a random number generator. Three live data pipelines run continuously and feed directly into the scoring engine. Each event type applies a specific score delta to the relevant component, which then recalculates the MP's raw score and share price immediately.
Parliament API
- →Every Commons division vote
- →Whip rebellions flagged automatically
- →Private Member's Bills at every stage
Refreshes every 15 min
Hansard API
- →PMQs contributions
- →Oral questions & answers
- →Speeches, statements, interventions
Refreshes every 30 min
Live News Feeds
- →BBC, Guardian, Telegraph, Mail
- →Sky News, FT, Express, GB News
- →Classified by AI — sentiment & type
Refreshes every 30 min
Parliamentary Division
Every Commons vote is tracked. Voting with the whip lifts Legislative Authority; rebelling against it drops Party Power.
Whip Rebellion
Government MPs voting against their own side take a Party Power penalty. A visible act of defiance with a real price consequence.
Hansard Speech
Substantive speeches (150+ words) in the Commons chamber lift Legislative Authority.
Oral Question
MPs asking or answering oral questions in the chamber gain a Legislative Authority boost.
PMQs
Every contribution at Prime Minister's Questions lifts Party Power and Legislative Authority.
Ministerial Statement
Making a statement to the House lifts Institutional Power for the relevant minister.
Social Media Impact
Follower count and engagement on original Bluesky/YouTube posts — bought followers and bot engagement don't count, since only genuine engagement on a verified account's own posts is measured.
Private Member's Bill
Tracked at every stage — introduction, second reading, Royal Assent, failure. Each stage moves Legislative Authority.
Media Surge
Positive press coverage lifts the Media Sentiment score — temporarily boosting the MP's price. The effect scales with how many outlets cover the story and decays 20% per day without further coverage.
Media Scandal
Adverse coverage drops the Media Sentiment score, which can go as low as −10. Serious stories can also affect structural scores. Without sustained coverage, the effect decays within days.
Events Tab
Every market-moving event is logged and browsable in real time.
All
The full feed — every event across all sources, newest first.
Media
RSS-sourced news articles classified as positive or negative for a named MP.
Parliament
Commons divisions grouped by bill — shows how many MPs voted and who rebelled.
Rebellion
MPs who defied the whip. Filtered view showing only cross-party defections.
PMB
Private Member's Bills at every stage from introduction to Royal Assent or failure.
Hansard
Oral contributions — PMQs, speeches, questions, statements, interventions.
Each MP's profile page also shows their individual event tape — every event that moved their price, with the source, direction, and score delta.
The Live Market
Prices update whenever a new event is processed — Parliament votes, Hansard contributions, or news articles. All market state is stored in a shared database, so every user sees the same prices at the same time. There is no local simulation — what you see is what the market is.
Market ticker
The rolling ticker at the top of every page shows live price moves across the market — green for rises, red for falls, with the Politex Index tracking the average across all 650 MPs.
Events tab
The dedicated Events page shows every market-moving event in real time, filterable by source — Media, Parliament, Rebellion, PMB, or Hansard.
MP profile tape
Each MP's profile shows their individual event history — every article, vote, speech, or bill that moved their price, with source and score delta.
Search & filter
The market table is searchable by name, constituency, party, or position — sortable by price, score, or change.
Your Portfolio
Your portfolio dashboard gives you a real-time view of your account across six metrics. Understanding what each number means — and how they relate — is key to reading your performance accurately.
Cash Balance
The money available to spend on new shares. You start with £500. It decreases every time you buy and increases every time you sell. This is the liquid portion of your account.
Holdings Value
The current market value of every share you own, calculated at live prices. This number updates every few seconds as the market moves. It represents your exposure to the market.
Total Invested
What you originally paid for your current holdings — the cost basis. If you bought 10 shares at £4.00 each, your total invested in that position is £40.00, regardless of what the price does next.
Unrealised P/L
The paper gain or loss on shares you still hold. It's the difference between Holdings Value and Total Invested. This is not real profit yet — it only crystallises when you sell. A positive number means your holdings are worth more than you paid.
Realised P/L
Profit or loss already locked in from trades you have closed. Every time you sell shares, the gain or loss on that transaction is captured here. This figure is embedded in your Cash Balance — it explains why your cash might be higher or lower than you'd expect from buys alone.
Net Worth
Cash Balance plus Holdings Value. This is the single number that tells you whether you're ahead or behind. If Net Worth is above £500, you're in profit overall. Net Worth = Unrealised P/L + Realised P/L + Starting Balance.
How the numbers connect
Holdings Value − Total Invested = Unrealised P/L
Cash Balance + Holdings Value = Net Worth
Net Worth − £500 = Total P/L (Unrealised + Realised)
Paper Trading → Live Trading
Politex is currently in Paper Trading mode. Every trade executes against your simulated £500 balance with no real money involved. The experience is intentionally identical to the live product — same prices, same mechanics, same UI — so your paper portfolio is genuinely meaningful practice.
- ✓ £500 virtual starting balance
- ✓ Full trade history log with audit trail
- ✓ Real prices from real-world events
- ✓ Shared market — one price for all users
- ✓ No real money, no risk
- → Deposit real funds via KYC-verified account
- → Identical UI — no relearning required
- → Same data pipelines already powering the beta
- → Multi-user order book with real liquidity
- → Mirror your paper positions or start fresh
The paper-to-live transition is a single account upgrade. Your experience, strategy, and trade history carry over.
Trade History & audit trail
Every buy and sell is logged with a full record: timestamp, politician, direction, share count, price at execution, and total value. This audit trail is structurally identical to what a live regulated platform requires — built in from the start, not retrofitted later.
Data Sources
Every data point that drives prices on Politex comes from a live, authoritative source. Nothing is simulated. The pipelines run continuously and write directly to the shared database.
UK Parliament Members API
Names, parties, constituencies, tenure — the canonical record of all 650 current MPs.
Commons Votes API
Every division in the House of Commons. Rebellion detection flags government MPs who vote against the whip.
Hansard API
Full text of Commons debates. Every oral contribution classified by type — PMQs, speech, oral question, statement, intervention.
Parliament Bills API
Private Member's Bills tracked at every legislative stage from introduction to Royal Assent.
8 News RSS Feeds
BBC Politics, Guardian, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Express, Sky News, Financial Times, GB News — refreshed every 30 minutes.
Claude AI (Haiku)
Each news article is classified for event type and sentiment by AI. Party and constituency are provided as context to prevent false matches.
What's live now
All market events in this beta are driven by real-world data
Parliamentary data
- ✓All 650 MPs from Parliament Members API
- ✓Every Commons division vote — live via Votes API
- ✓Whip rebellions detected automatically
- ✓Hansard oral contributions — every debate
- ✓Private Member's Bills at every stage
Media & scoring
- ✓8 live news feeds, refreshed every 30 minutes
- ✓AI classification of every article — event type and sentiment
- ✓2024 general election majority margins
- ✓Ministerial and shadow cabinet roles
- ✓Shared database — one market, all users
Coming next: social media sentiment, committee appointment feeds, by-election results, and multi-user portfolio leaderboards.