TotalAnarchy
03-15-2002, 03:21 AM
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0203/15/world/world13.html
Girl, 5, a national expert at sharing
A five-year-old girl has beaten a financial analyst and an astrologer in predicting stock market predictions over a year.
Tia Lavern Roberts, from south-east London, chose her fantasy share portfolio entirely at random when she was four - by catching pieces of papers as they fell from a balcony. A year later, she had not only outperformed her fellow participants in the National Science Week challenge but defied a 16 per cent drop in Britain's FTSE-100 index of leading shares with her selection of issues.
Her fantasy £5000 ($13,600) portfolio rose 5.8per cent, while the one selected by a financial analyst, Mark Goodson, lost 46.2 per cent over the year. The portfolio of the astrologer, Christeen Skinner, dropped 6.2per cent.
Mr Goodson used his years of expertise and computer analysis, and Ms Skinner based her selection on planetary movements.
"During an unstable year for the stock market ... Tia's random selection has still managed to outperform the others," said Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, who devised the experiment.
Henk Potts, of Barclays Bank, said Tia had done well to avoid the telecom sector.
"Tia would be a welcome addition to the City of London [stock exchange], school work permitting, of course," he said.
To mark the occasion, Tia, accompanied by her mother, Sharon, chose at random five new investments to watch in the coming year.
Her verdict on her stock market success so far - "Wicked!"
The Guardian and agencies
Girl, 5, a national expert at sharing
A five-year-old girl has beaten a financial analyst and an astrologer in predicting stock market predictions over a year.
Tia Lavern Roberts, from south-east London, chose her fantasy share portfolio entirely at random when she was four - by catching pieces of papers as they fell from a balcony. A year later, she had not only outperformed her fellow participants in the National Science Week challenge but defied a 16 per cent drop in Britain's FTSE-100 index of leading shares with her selection of issues.
Her fantasy £5000 ($13,600) portfolio rose 5.8per cent, while the one selected by a financial analyst, Mark Goodson, lost 46.2 per cent over the year. The portfolio of the astrologer, Christeen Skinner, dropped 6.2per cent.
Mr Goodson used his years of expertise and computer analysis, and Ms Skinner based her selection on planetary movements.
"During an unstable year for the stock market ... Tia's random selection has still managed to outperform the others," said Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, who devised the experiment.
Henk Potts, of Barclays Bank, said Tia had done well to avoid the telecom sector.
"Tia would be a welcome addition to the City of London [stock exchange], school work permitting, of course," he said.
To mark the occasion, Tia, accompanied by her mother, Sharon, chose at random five new investments to watch in the coming year.
Her verdict on her stock market success so far - "Wicked!"
The Guardian and agencies