Five anonymised historical charts were dealt to every player. The Monkey Index returned -0.01% across the same tape.
82 desks completed all five charts.
Pandemic travel bans had crushed fuel demand and heavy debt hung over the oil patch, so half the street had written the sector off. This is the week the first vaccine news landed, and the reopening trade caught fire.
With post-crisis interest rates pinned to the floor, property insurers were written off as dead money with nowhere to earn a yield. In a quiet spring for defensive stocks, the slow grind higher simply carried on.
Lehman had just collapsed and the entire investment banking model was fighting for survival, with investors convinced no firm on Wall Street was safe. Emergency support was landing, but sellers were not done.
Early tremors of the credit crisis were rattling Wall Street, sending investors hunting for shelter in dependable telecom dividends. The defensive trade carried straight through.
China's industrial expansion was driving the mid-2000s commodity boom, pushing copper into record territory almost weekly. Even after months of ferocious gains, buyers were not done yet.