Boys claim the cat has an uncanny record of sitting near winning stock picks
An Unlikely Financial Advisor
Eton’s Student Investment and Trading Society has unofficially adopted a housemaster’s ginger cat, known to boys simply as “the Chancellor,” as its unlikely mascot, following a string of society meetings in which the cat’s choice of lap to sit on has coincided, members insist, with an unusually high rate of successful stock picks in the society’s trial trading portfolio. The society’s committee has stopped short of formally crediting the cat with any actual analytical ability, though several members admit they have begun watching its movements “with more attention than is probably healthy.”
The Numbers, For What They’re Worth
According to the society’s own informal tracking, of the eleven weeks in which the cat has attended a meeting and shown a clear preference for sitting beside a particular member, that member’s trial portfolio outperformed the group average in eight of them, a statistic the society’s treasurer has called “almost certainly coincidental, and yet difficult to entirely dismiss.” The housemaster who owns the cat has expressed mild bemusement at the whole affair, noting that the animal’s actual selection criteria “appear to relate mostly to whoever is holding a biscuit at the time.”
A Debate Over Superstition
The society’s faculty advisor, asked for his own view, said he found the whole phenomenon “harmless enough” and privately rather charming, adding that if a housemaster’s cat could improve attendance and enthusiasm at what is otherwise a fairly dry weekly meeting, he saw little reason to discourage the superstition, provided it did not begin influencing actual trading decisions in any material way. He did, however, add with a smile that he had personally started sitting closer to the cat himself in recent weeks.
Not every member of the society is convinced the cat deserves its growing reputation. One Sixth Former, self-described as “the resident skeptic,” has argued the pattern is a textbook case of confirmation bias, though he admits even he has begun positioning himself closer to the cat during meetings “purely as a control measure.” The society’s chair has declined to formally endorse the superstition but has confirmed that the cat, whatever its actual financial acumen, will continue to be welcome at meetings “on animal welfare and morale grounds alone.”
A Growing Following
News of the cat’s reputation has reportedly spread beyond the society itself, with several younger boys now requesting to attend meetings purely to see it in action. Money, Style & Tech understands the Chancellor remains, for now, unbothered by its newfound fame.
More from this section at Eton College Insight and coverage of the wider school world at The London Prat.
For further reading in a similar spirit, see The Onion and Private Eye.
SOURCE: https://prat.uk
