I think I need to get my 4-year-old involved in the market.
Predicting the Stock Market Is Child's Play
March 14, 2002 11:24 am EST
LONDON (Reuters) - A five-year old girl has beaten a financial analyst and an astrologer in an experiment to find the most accurate stock market predictions over a year, organizers said on Thursday.
Tia Lavern Roberts not only outperformed her fellow participants in the National Science Week challenge but defied a 16 percent drop in Britain's FTSE 100 index of leading shares with her selection of issues.
Her fantasy $7,000 portfolio rose 5.8 percent, while the one selected by analyst Mark Goodson lost 46.2 percent over the year. Astrologer Christeen Skinner's portfolio dropped 6.2 percent.
Goodson used his years of expertise and computer analysis, and Skinner based her selection on planetary movements.
"During an unstable year for the stock market...Tia's random selection has still managed to outperformed the others," Richard Wiseman, a psychologist from the University of Hertfordshire who devised the experiment, said in statement.
Tia thought it was "wicked" that she'd beaten the market, the statement said.
Her tips for this year's investors were Cadbury Schweppes, Northern Rock, Prudential, Pearson and Shell Transport. |
