Financial Betting Articles

Is it my imagination or are everybody's heads made of marshmallow? OK, granted, that one is my imagination - but what's all the fuss about bonds? Why should my shamelessly sweeping views of the market accommodate such esoteric (look it up) factors as the success or otherwise of US Government bond auctions? It's enough to make me take a day off from whipping the boot boy. (Well, not really.)

And so to the City Club, the last bastion of all things Empirical. The City Club, where a man can passively smoke without fear of your host stubbing out his cigar. Here for a talk with Merv. Raconteur, bon viveur and occasional Governor of the old Lady of Threadneedle Street. "Bonds!" He cried. "Yes, it does rather", I replied urbanely as he tried to lift himself from the winged leather armchair that I had just superglued him to. "Damn Yanks can't get the damn Chinese to buy their damn debt. Having to damn well hike the damn rates up to attract the damn buyers and that's going to damn well damning up our rates damn damn damn damnedy damn..." At which point I'll be damned if I didn't leave him to it.

Therein lies the rub, dear reader. If you wondered why the FTSE and Dow have been up and down like a kangaroo on Prozac it could just be that with bonds drifting off and interest rates drifting up the piles of cash Private Equity have amassed may not turn the profit that had been hoped and money may, finally, be drifting away from equities.

"But what's that to do with me?!" I hear you cry - just as Merv did when I handed him my drinks bill. Well, it'll be denting your share portfolio, increasing your mortgage repayments and generally contributing to a sense of "Oh, God, here we go again". Still, look on the bright side: there's never been more action for you to jump on with the markets. The 5 minute bets with those patsies at ChoiceOdds must be a shoo in for a quick money grab. Time to get stuck to your screens just like old Merv. Of course, he's only stuck to his screen because I glued his head to it. ...What else are friends for?

Make like Merv and visit ChoiceOdds.com to get the best prices around.

The FTSE closed flat on Friday - the first time since 2nd September 2003 and only the third time in nearly 12 years.

From the start of the year to last Monday, Wall Street had put on 9.8%; by close of play Thursday it had shed 3.2%. Friday saw it add 1.3% - will it make back the rest this week?

On Wall Street, last year there were 32 more up trading days than down days. This year so far there are also 32 more up days than down days.

If you take our £5 and land it on three winning 33/1s, you'll have the cash for a new Ferrari F430 Spider, with enough spare to buy an Audi TT for the other half.

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