Five anonymised historical charts were dealt to every player. The Monkey Index returned +0.08% across the same tape.
88 desks completed all five charts.
Factory automation was riding high on talk of an American manufacturing revival, pushing the shares steadily to record highs. A sudden chill across global markets was enough to check the run.
The pandemic DIY boom had evaporated and frozen housing turnover was weighing on renovation spending, so the market had largely written off home improvement. When the late-2023 rate rally took hold, the bounce carried straight through.
Apple had just shut Flash out of the iPhone and the cloud subscription model had not arrived yet, so the market feared mobile was leaving the business behind. This is the week the shares quietly held their ground.
A historic boom in corporate borrowing and index investing had turned market infrastructure into a quiet cash machine. The steady summer rally never broke stride.
Post-9/11 defence spending had turned military contractors into reliable cash machines, but the market rarely treated them as exciting trades. The steady, unglamorous grind higher simply carried on.