The SOMEX (the SOM Exchange) is a market where students can buy and sell shares in their classmates (and their classes or cohorts or professors, etc.). The SOMEX combines a system of social contracts, a teaching tool about the markets, and fun. The fundamental "cash flows" of the SOMEX are Contribution Points, a measurement of how much a person contributes to the overall SOM experience. This, of course, could be run with any fairly large group of people and is not limited to Yale School of Management.

Further explanation:

1) Social contracts - If you own a share in someone, you become invested in seeing them do better. If you see your own price go down, it could provide motivation for self-improvement.

2) Teaching tool - Anyone who participated in the SOMEX would come out of the experience having a much more sophisticated understanding of the way markets work.

3) Fun - Once you warm to the idea, you realize how much fun it is to invest heavily in someone you think is undervalued (or to short a class that you think is overvalued). You can even do complicated hedging like longing a person and shorting that person's comments in class. The possibilities are endless.

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