The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the tradition of children trading their Trick-or-Treating candy. However, some enterprising children have kept candy trading alive and well in an online marketplace.

“We had to make the best of a bad situation,” said the creator of the marketplace, ten-year-old Jimmy Molina. “It’s actually better this way. Before I could only trade with the kids in my neighborhood, but now the whole world is my neighborhood! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m expecting a Dum-Dum boom in the next fifteen minutes and I need to sweep some up while I can.”

The website quickly grew after it’s initial launch, and a loose hierarchy of relative candy value was established. Some classic candy bars like Kit-Kat or Twix have a stable value and are generally considered good quality. However, others, like Candy Corn, are in constant flux, with their worth being hotly debated. This has made the site unpredictable, with wild swings in candy value, and children looking to profit from them.

“I started out with a single bag of Skittles,” said newly candy-rich twelve-year-old Lucy Heck. “I traded that for a couple of Tootsie-Pops. When those rose in value, I sold them and diversified into some smaller candies, and now look at me, I’m practically drowning in the stuff. Can’t eat it though, I need it to make more trades.”

However, some kids have not been so fortunate. “I lost everything in the crash of November 1st,” said an anonymous candy trader. “I thought Pixie-Stix were gonna be big, and I traded everything for them. Then, bam! All of a sudden, they’re worth less than a rat turd. I don’t know what to do, if I can’t pay my debts Heck’s gonna dip into next Halloween’s haul!”

These gaps in sugary wealth have given birth to the “Occupy Hall(oween) Street” movement, led by a group of children who are fed up by the disparities in the system, many of them stemming from inequalities in the candy children had available to trade in the beginning.

Meanwhile, the creator of the site is already turning his eye to other projects. “The holiday season is a big time of year,” he said. “I think I’m going to get into the turkey market before Thanksgiving, ride that gravy train. After that, who knows. Maybe I’ll be Secretary of Commerce one day.”