first read this from the hsx glossary a few times:
Adjust
MovieStocks® adjust in price after their opening weekend. The adjusted price is equal to the estimated box-office receipts multiplied by 2.7 (extended weekends adjust differently). Weekend adjusts can make or break an HSX trader.
Adjust Price
MovieStocks in Wide Release will adjust in price based on its opening weekend gross. The adjusted price is calculated based on the following multipliers:
* Three-day weekend: 2.7*Box Office Friday-Sunday
* Four-day holiday weekend: 2.2*Box Office Friday-Monday
* Five-day Thanksgiving weekend: 2.0*Box Office Wednesday-Sunday
* Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday openers: [Week Days B.O. + (2.7*Box Office Friday-Sunday)]
* Limited release expanding Wide: [Previous B.O. + (3.0*Box Office Friday-Sunday)]
* Two-day weekend: 4.8*Box Office Saturday-Sunday
So if a new movie opening on a typical weekend halted on Friday at $54 H-dollars a share, it means traders expected it to have an opening weekend of $20Million (54/2.7=20) So once the box office numbers come out on Sat. morning, you can estimate the gain/loss when it actually gets adjusted by hsx staff on sunday afternoon.
Lets say on Sat. you seen that the movie is expected to make $30Million. Multiply that by 2.7 and you will get $81. That will be its adjusted priced. Then subtract the halted price from tha adjusted price. (so $81-$54=$27 a share gained) Then multiply that by the number of shares you are holding. (lets say you had 10,000shares long, so 10,000*27=$270,000 of profit.) If you had that many shares shorted you'd lose that much.
so basically:
((weekend estimate times 2.7) minus halted price) times number of shares held equals amount of profit/loss