Need a reason to root for the Giants? I don’t, and this being a New York-focused site, many of you probably don’t either. But here’s one anyway: whenever an original National Football League team wins the Super Bowl (like the G-men), the stock market rises that year; the market falls when a team like the New England Patriots– an original American Football League team who joined the NFL via the 1970 merger– wins.
Now I know what you’re thinking, “How dependable can a crazy predictor like that be?” Well my friend, it’s been more reliable than most stock market indicators, technical, fundamental, sentimental, or otherwise. The “Super Bowl predictor” has correctly indicated the direction of the Dow Jones Industrial Average for the year following 33 of the 41 previous Super Bowls. That’s an amazing 81% success rate!!! Ask your financial advisor if he’s been right on the direction of the stock market 81% of the time. If most hedge fund managers were toting stats like that there would be a hell of a lot more demand for Bentleys and yachts in the developed world.
Given the recent stock market turmoil, many Americans could use a nice market rally in 2008. If you have money sitting in the stock market right now, you may want to think twice before you put on your Patriots jersey before Super Bowl XLII. Is it really worth a reduction in your personal wealth to see Tom Brady and Co. cap off an undefeated season? In fact, I’ll pose the question to Tom (after all, he is an avid reader of mine): Hey buddy, I know you have a lot of money at play in the stock market. Do you really want to see your massive wealth deteriorate greatly, forcing you to significantly reduce your spending, suddenly rendering your good looks and football success inadequate, leading Giselle to dump you for someone with some real money (like perhaps a certain Subway Chatter writer who put all of his money into put options on the Dow once the Pats won), and then you’ll have to read about their wonderful relationship every day because, although it kills you, he’s such a great and entertaining writer that you keep coming back for more each day. Is that what you really want, Tom? It’s just a little something for you to think about when you take the field Sunday evening against the Giants.
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