Well, Bloomberg won our quiz. Could you have done better?

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They finally did it, the bastards.

Hundreds of finance nerds gathered in Painters’ Hall last night for the latest instalment of the FT Alphaville pub quiz. Across eight rounds, attendees were tested on their knowledge of esoterica ranging from bond king pornography habits to ’00s pop royalty.

Unfortunately, Bloomberg won.

*sigh*

Sadly, we do in fact gotta hand it to Quizteam Lagarde, who — after coming second last October, and third in May — persevered with a slightly altered team and finally took the dub by a mere two points, vanquishing 29 other teams. We can assume they just spend lots of time reading the FT.

Overall, they got nearly 60 per cent of the answers right, while the worst-scoring team got about 30 per cent. Has Alphaville made the quiz too easy? Our comment box, as ever, is open.

Here are the final scores, in the absolute lowest-tech way we could manage:

1. Quizteam Lagarde (49 points)

2 (tied). Some Quiz Team (47 points)

2 (tied). Random Walkers (47 points)

4. Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Quizbisco (45 points)

5 (tied). BERDs of a feather (44 points)

5 (tied). CREVille (44 points)

5 (tied). Speckled Hens (44 points)

8. Dire For Longer (43 points)

9. Quizzy Englander (42 points)

10. Net Interest (40 points)

11 (tied). Pause Patrol (39 points)

11 (tied). Credit Quisse (39 points)

13 (tied). Quizzee Kwarteng and the Magic Money Trees (38 points)

13 (tied). Significant Tail Risk (38 points)

15 (tied). Peak Bad (37 points)

15 (tied). Cramer’s Tip (37 points)

15 (tied). The Full WACC (37 points)

15 (tied). Hidden, poorly internally labeled ‘quiz@’ team name (37 points)

19 (tied). Yanis Varafukthis (35 points)

19 (tied). Don’t Think About It (35 points)

21. We Thought This Was Speed Dating (34 points)

22. Quizzie Sunak (31 points)

23 (tied). Deuda Eterna (30 points)

23 (tied). Negative Unit Economics (30 points)

23 (tied). Downside Protection (29 points)

23 (tied). The Bored Ape Squad (29 points)

23 (tied). London Thunder (28 points)

28. Inactive Minds (28 points)

29. Willing to sell answers for unpublished price-sensitive information (27 points)

30. Half a mil of student debt and look where it got us (24.75 points)

And here they are in a slightly higher-tech way (mobile users, we advise you to switch to desktop now):

And here they are in an even higher-tech way:

And here they are in another way that was simply too high-tech and barely works:

Yes, we did briefly consider tracking success rates for every round, but manual data entry of about 2,400 answers is too much even for us on a Friday.

Quizteam Lagarde took home swag including custom stickers, the traditional winners’ mugs, and a new Alphaville Magnificent Seven T-shirt that will be available to the public soon.

Snapping at their heels were Some Quiz Team and Random Walkers, the latter a combination of brave randos led by Alphaville’s very own Bryce Elder.

But what about the people who weren’t there? Is there a potential Bloomberg slayer out there?

The Quiz

Three important notes before we get started:

• The first chart picture round question was mis-labelled with a £ symbol instead of a $. As a result, FTAV discounted that question on the night, and fired Louis on the spot. We’ve converted it to its intended form here.

• Answers were (hopefully) correct at time of quizzing, but if you’ve returned here from the far future they may have changed.

• The quizmaster is always right.

Answers are at the bottom — don’t cheat!

Rounds

1. Macro Cuts [Markets/Economics]

2. Rise of the Robots [Crypto/Tech]

3. Plotted [Film & TV]

4. Chart Attack [Picture round 1]

5. Head Lines [Picture round 2]

6. Hit The Right Notes [Forex Music Round]

7. C-suite Life [Celebs/Bosses]

8. Doing The Knowledge [General Knowledge]

1. Macro Cuts

1. In which sport did Christine Lagarde represent France as a teenager?

2. Which of these items is NOT in the Office for National Statistics’ consumer price inflation basket: home-killed lamb, small caged mammal, weekly nanny fees, spirit-based drinks?

3. Who won the Riksbank Nobel Prize for economics this year?

4. From the fifth to the second century BC, what was the interest rate charged on loans from the Temple of Apollo on the island of Delos? Answers to the nearest 5 per cent.

5. What was the common nickname for the “Consortium of Iran” cartel which dominated the global oil industry from the mid-1940s to the 1970s?

6. Which current or former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has lost the highest number of Bank Rate votes?

7. Which current or former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has attended the most consecutive meetings without losing a Bank Rate vote?

8. Which branch of the US Federal Reserve hosts the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium?

9. UK annual CPI inflation hit a four-decade peak last October. What, in percentage terms, did it peak at? Answers to one decimal place.

10. Which central bank’s logo features a detailed drawing of a zebra?

2.  Rise of the Robots

1. What has been this year’s best-performing cryptocurrency, out of those with a “market cap” of at least $1bn?

2. Bill Gates and Paul Allen formed their first software business while in high school. What did the software do?

3. What’s the name of Google’s chat-based artificial intelligence programme?

4. How old is Sam Bankman-Fried?

5. Which citrus fruit was added to Unicode’s emoji range in September’s update?

6. Who was the first musician to have one of their songs turned into an MP3?

7. Ryan Salame, the former chief executive of FTX Digital Markets, pleaded guilty in September to operating an illegal money-transmitting business. At which accountancy firm did he start his career?

8. How many living children does Elon Musk have (based on currently available information)?

9. Which American celebrity last month signed a two-year deal with X, formerly Twitter, to produce four original videos a year for the platform?

10. What is the name of the boat owned by Sam Trabucco, the former co-chief executive of Alameda Research?

3. Plotted

Every story is a business story.  In this round, we want you to match the financial plot to the famous film. Please note these are not always the entirety, or even an important part, of the plot in question.

1. Amid an economic downturn, six former manufacturing industry employees reskill and join England’s live entertainment sector. A: The Full Monty

2. Two business rivals form a correspondence-based relationship. The smaller business collapses.

3. Political instability forces a domestic servant out of her job and home, but she finds temporary accommodation with a group of primary sector workers.

4. A coastal worker briefly moves into thought leadership after his unemployed girlfriend has an existential crisis.

5. An insurance broker suffers a midlife crisis and returns to his highly-specialised former career, where he plies his trade alongside his wife and children.

6. Scared that his son might become a bond trader, an aspiring inventor gets a job in security with unsociable hours.

7. A reclusive landowner takes on temporary work as a courier during a dispute over residential zoning.

8. After assembling a team of specialists for a complicated job, a contractor falls asleep on a plane.

9. Members of a down-on-their-luck family help each other get jobs in tutoring, art therapy, chauffeuring and housekeeping.

10. Environmental developments interrupt an elderly cleaner’s attempts to befriend, and possibly seduce, a young model.

4. Chart Attack

[Hi-res]

5. Head Lines

[Hi-res]

6. Hit The Right Notes (Music Round)

So we did a music round. For each song, we want your to name the currency in circulation in the country of the artist’s birthday, at the time the song was recorded. Simple!

Well, not quite: because of copyright concerns, we’ve going to link to external uploads on the various songs on YouTube. Obviously that is going to make it quite easy to cheat on who the artist is. We recommend therefore clicking the link, closing your eyes, having a listen and then closing the tab without looking.

7. C-suite Life

1. Which finance industry tycoon helped bankroll Maroon 5’s first record?

2. What generation of Johnson to run Fidelity is Abigail Johnson?

3. How many computer screens did AQR’s Clifford Asness admit to smashing during the financial crisis?

4. To the nearest million dollars, how much did Meta spend on Sheryl Sandberg’s private jet travel in 2022?

5. Which prominent bond investor was alleged to have kept a large stash of porn and drugs at his office?

6. Which rapper is in a legal row with Diageo for breach of contract over the distribution of drinks DeLeón and Cîroc?

7. Which high street lender has Nigel Farage opened accounts with after being cut off by Coutts?

8. Lex Greensill’s company has recently invested in an innovative new business making carbon products from which plant?

9. Which celebrity is being described in this lawyer quote: “[He] is an actor, not a winemaker. He deals in illusions, not dirt and grapes”?

10. What was the FT-friendly name that Third Point’s Dan Loeb used when he was a hardcore message board poster?

8. Doing The Knowledge

1. From worst to least-bad, rank these in order of total losses since their peaks: Austria’s 2017 century bond; Argentina’s 2017 century bond; and the UK’s 2073 linker.

2. Earlier this year, Alphaville wrote about the travails of Swiss lawyer Dario Item, a pizza enthusiast with a portfolio career including diplomacy, influencing and journalism. For which country does Item act as an ambassador?

3. Novo Nordisk became Europe’s largest company by market cap this year, its centenary. What was the first product it produced?

4. How many of the S&P 500 companies have a female CEO? Answers to the nearest 10? To nearest 10.

5. At which law firm did Dominic Raab begin his legal career?  A: Linklaters

6. Of the 345 completed SPACs tracked by Bloomberg, how many of them are above their listing price? Nearest five.

7. What major economic data series did the Chinese state statistics agency discontinue earlier this year?

8. Protein powder provider THG and NFT platform Kraken are both sponsors of Formula One team Williams Racing. Which other company’s logo appears on the inner front wings of Williams’ F1 cars?

9. Roughly what proportion of US equity trading does Citadel Securities execute? To nearest 5 per cent.

10. According to the Office for National Statistics, how much did the cheapest pint of bitter available to buy in the UK cost during September (to nearest 10p)?

…that’s all, folks.

Let us descend the Ladder of Revelation…

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The Answers

1. Macro Cuts

1. In which sport did Christine Lagarde represent France as a teenager? A: Synchronised swimming

2. Which of these items is NOT in the Office for National Statistics’ consumer price inflation basket: home-killed lamb, small caged mammal, weekly nanny fees, spirit-based drinks? A: Spirit-based drinks.

3. Who won the Riksbank Nobel Prize for economics this year? A: Claudia Goldin

4. From the fifth to the second century BC, what was the interest rate charged on loans from the Temple of Apollo on the island of Delos? Answers to the nearest 5 per cent. A: 10 per cent

5. What was the common nickname for the “Consortium of Iran” cartel which dominated the global oil industry from the mid-1940s to the 1970s? A: The Seven Sisters

6. Which current or former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has lost the highest number of Bank Rate votes? A: David “Danny” Blanchflower

7. Which current or former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has attended the most consecutive meetings without losing a Bank Rate vote? A: Ben Broadbent

8. Which branch of the US Federal Reserve hosts the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium? A: Kansas City

9. UK annual CPI inflation hit a four-decade peak last October. What, in percentage terms, did it peak at? Answers to one decimal place. A: 11.1 per cent

10. Which central bank’s logo features a detailed drawing of a zebra? A: Bank of Botswana

2.  Rise of the Robots

1. What has been this year’s best-performing cryptocurrency, out of those with a “market cap” of at least $1bn? A: Solana

2. Bill Gates and Paul Allen formed their first software business while in high school. What did the software do? A: Analyse traffic data

3. What’s the name of Google’s chat-based artificial intelligence programme? A: Bard

4. How old is Sam Bankman-Fried? A: 31

5. Which citrus fruit was added to Unicode’s emoji range in September’s update? A: Lime

6. Who was the first musician to have one of their songs turned into an MP3? A: Suzanne Vega

7. Ryan Salame, the former chief executive of FTX Digital Markets, pleaded guilty in September to operating an illegal money-transmitting business. At which accountancy firm did he start his career? A: EY/Ernst & Young

8. How many living children does Elon Musk have (based on currently available information)? A: 10

9. Which American celebrity last month signed a two-year deal with X, formerly Twitter, to produce four original videos a year for the platform? A: Paris Hilton

10. What is the name of the boat owned by Sam Trabucco, the former co-chief executive of Alameda Research? A: Soak My Deck

3. Plotted

Every story is a business story.  In this round, we want you to match the financial plot to the famous film. Please note these are not always the entirety, or even an important part, of the plot in question.

1. Amid an economic downturn, six former manufacturing industry employees reskill and join England’s live entertainment sector. A: The Full Monty

2. Two business rivals form a correspondence-based relationship. The smaller business collapses. A: You’ve Got Mail.

3. Political instability forces a domestic servant out of her job and home, but she finds temporary accommodation with a group of primary sector workers. A: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

4. A coastal worker briefly moves into thought leadership after his unemployed girlfriend has an existential crisis. A: Barbie

5. An insurance broker suffers a midlife crisis and returns to his highly-specialised former career, where he plies his trade alongside his wife and children. A: The Incredibles

6. Scared that his son might become a bond trader, an aspiring inventor gets a job in security with unsociable hours. A: Night at the Museum

7. A reclusive landowner takes on temporary work as a courier during a dispute over residential zoning. A: Shrek

8. After assembling a team of specialists for a complicated job, a contractor falls asleep on a plane. A: Inception

9. Members of a down-on-their-luck family help each other get jobs in tutoring, art therapy, chauffeuring and housekeeping. A: Parasite

10. Environmental developments interrupt an elderly cleaner’s attempts to befriend, and possibly seduce, a young model. A: Wall-E

4. Chart Attack

[Hi-res]

1. US consumer spending

2. Turkish lira

3. CAB Payments

4. Tether

5. UK government borrowing as a % of GDP

6. 10-year UST yield

7. Net satisfaction with how the BoE is handling inflation

8. Cocoa

9. China yearly year-on-year growth

5. Head Lines

[Hi-res]

1. Mark Zuckerberg

2. Warren Buffett

3. Rachel Reeves

4. Gautam Adani

5. Andrew Bailey

6. Christine Lagarde

7. Janet Yellen

8. Sam Bankman-Fried

9. Mark Carney

10. Elon Musk

11. Sharon White

12. Sundar Pichai

13. Elizabeth Holmes

14. Bill Ackman

15. Anna Wintour

6. Hit The Right Notes (Music Round)

1. Swedish Krona (Money, Money, Money by ABBA)

2. Colombian Peso (She Wolf by Shakira)

3. US Dollar (Despacito by Luis Fonsi)

4. Canadian Dollar (My Heart Will Go On by Céline Dion)

5. Euro (Hero by Enrique Iglesias)

6. Deutsche mark (Computer Love by Kraftwerk)

7. Moldovan Leu (Dragostea din tei by O-Zone)

8. Barbadian or Bajan Dollar (Bitch Better Have my Money by Rihanna)

9. Jamaican Pound (Stir It Up by Bob Marley and the Wailers (Original Version))

10. Italian Lira (Con Te Partirò by Andrea Bocelli)

7. C-suite Life

1. Which finance industry tycoon helped bankroll Maroon 5’s first record? A: Larry Fink

2. What generation of Johnson to run Fidelity is Abigail Johnson? A: Third

3. How many computer screens did AQR’s Clifford Asness admit to smashing during the financial crisis? A: Three

4. To the nearest million dollars, how much did Meta spend on Sheryl Sandberg’s private jet travel in 2022? A: $4mn

5. Which prominent bond investor was alleged to have kept a large stash of porn and drugs at his office? A: Jeffrey Gundlach

6. Which rapper is in a legal row with Diageo for breach of contract over the distribution of drinks DeLeón and Cîroc? A: Sean Combs/P Diddy/Puff Daddy/Puffy/Diddy

7. Which high street lender has Nigel Farage opened accounts with after being cut off by Coutts? A: Lloyds Bank

8. Lex Greensill’s company has recently invested in an innovative new business making carbon products from which plant? A: Coconuts

9. Which celebrity is being described in this lawyer quote: “[He] is an actor, not a winemaker. He deals in illusions, not dirt and grapes”? A: Brad Pitt

10. What was the FT-friendly name that Third Point’s Dan Loeb used when he was a hardcore message board poster? A: Mr Pink

8. Doing The Knowledge

1. From worst to least-bad, rank these in order of total losses since their peaks: Austria’s 2017 century bond; Argentina’s 2017 century bond; and the UK’s 2073 linker. A: UK linker, Austria’s century bond, Argentina’s century bond. 

2. Earlier this year, Alphaville wrote about the travails of Swiss lawyer Dario Item, a pizza enthusiast with a portfolio career including diplomacy, influencing and journalism. For which country does Item act as an ambassador? A: Antigua and Barbuda

3. Novo Nordisk became Europe’s largest company by market cap this year, its centenary. What was the first product it produced? A: Insulin

4. How many of the S&P 500 companies have a female CEO? Answers to the nearest 10? To nearest 10. A: 41

5. At which law firm did Dominic Raab begin his legal career?  A: Linklaters

6. Of the 345 completed SPACs tracked by Bloomberg, how many of them are above their listing price? Nearest five. A: 19

7. What major economic data series did the Chinese state statistics agency discontinue earlier this year? A: Youth unemployment.

8. Protein powder provider THG and NFT platform Kraken are both sponsors of Formula One team Williams Racing. Which other company’s logo appears on the inner front wings of Williams’ F1 cars? A: Financial Times

9. Roughly what proportion of US equity trading does Citadel Securities execute? To nearest 5 per cent. A: About 20%.

10. According to the Office for National Statistics, how much did the cheapest pint of bitter available to buy in the UK cost during September (to nearest 10p)? A: £1.77

As ever, feedback/pleas/duel proposals to [email protected].