JB

James Bosworth

Things James Says on Podcasts

Where to Find Them

James Bosworth writes Latin America Risk Report . They have also been a guest on Odd Lots (2 times) and Global Dispatches .

Recently: “James Bosworth on What Comes After Lula's Stunning Win” on Odd Lots (November 2026); “Venezuela - There are no coup rumors in Caracas” on Latin America Risk Report (June 2026); “Mexico, Brazil, and the US trade war - June 2026” on Latin America Risk Report (June 2026); “Five more comments on Colombia's election - 2 June 2026” on Latin America Risk Report (June 2026); “Colombia - First round presidential election results” on Latin America Risk Report (June 2026); “Friday Reading List - 29 May 2026” on Latin America Risk Report (May 2026).

What They Said

“In fact, there was a moment where the prediction markets hit 87% for Bolsonaro… I will tell you, they missed. They were overconfident on this election. I missed. I wish I had been lower on the Flavio market.” — James Bosworth, Odd Lots

Asked about his own forecast for Brazil's runoff, Bosworth said he had Bolsonaro at 64% the night before while prediction markets were around 80%. Here he answers whether Lula's upset was a 20% shot coming in or a market miss: a miss.

Odd Lots · 2026-11-05 Permalink → Listen →
Odd Lots Around 12:15 into the episode
Speaker 2

I had a win. He was

Joe Wisenthal

64% chance to win. To win. Yes, yes. Exactly.

Speaker 2

64% chance to win. And the prediction markets were at 80%. Yeah, they were. In fact, there was a moment where the prediction markets hit 87% for Bolsonaro. And so there's always this element of, you know, who got it less wrong becomes a real question in some of these prediction market things. And I know that this was a big miss for the prediction market. Yeah. Right. I mean, you always wonder, was this the 20% shot that happened or did they miss? I will tell you, they missed. They were overconfident on this election. I missed. I wish I had been lower on the flavor market. So you

Joe Wisenthal

obviously thought that Lula had a real chance of winning.

Speaker 2

Oh, absolutely. You know, better than a third, right? The chance of winning. And the reasons were, I mean, you could see him slowly catching up in the polls and you could see his campaign just doing well generally. Now, I can't base a prediction on vibes. All of the data, all of the polls said…

Tracy Alloway

herding together and correlated. And there's there were other issues as well. So that all went into the model. How much of the miss by prediction markets and pollsters, I guess, had to do with, I guess, surprise voters actually turning out in the election? Because it seems like maybe a lot of…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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