In our first year we have grown to a small group of around a dozen hard core lottery enthusiasts, although we lost around half a dozen on the way (always welcome back!). I was anticipating something on a grander scale, say 80-100 members, with 10-12 having a 'lucky peak' at any one time. Maybe my promotional skills are lacking, or perhaps I must accept that there are not that many lottery fans in the world. Anyway, I might not have been able to cope with the extra workload.
In the three months (Sept - Nov) since my last progress report, the group as a whole did slightly better than expected (SCORE = 110%), the numbers picked by more than one contributor did somewhat worse (TOP = 79%), while the numbers chosen by contributors near lucky peaks did best (PEAK = 123%).
For the year since December 2011, the final scores are as follows:
SCORE: 103%
TOP: 96%
PEAK: 130% (p < 0.03)
As you can see, numbers chosen at astrologically favoured times outperformed by almost a third, and this is statistically significant. This is a continuation of the theme first seen in our first progress report. I think it is safe to conclude that astrology works, and that this wasn't just a fluke result.
Good news on the forecasting front is balanced by mediocrity in winnings. I bought 1146 lottery tickets, and won 18 prizes (21 expected). Unfortunately, I didn't win anything higher than the lowest division Match-3 prize. Clearly the astrological advantage is not strong enough to overcome the mammoth odds facing lottery players. We could probably improve our winnings by recruiting more members, thus magnifying the astrological advantage, but whether this would ever be enough to take us to a substantial win remains to be seen.
While the lottery results were disappointing, the move by the group into the stock picking arena was more interesting. Over the last two months the group beat the FTSE on seven weeks out of nine, and returned a cumulative growth of 8.56%, in contrast to the FTSE which grew by 2.25%. This demonstrates the power of collective endeavour. I hope to return to stock picking sometime next year, as I feel it could be a regular and consistent source of income, which nicely complements the sporadic potential of a large lottery win.
We made £118 on the markets, which added to the lottery dividend of £90 gave a total of £208 to be divided among contributors.
It remains for me to thank everyone who supported the Project over the year, especially those of you who stuck with me until the bitter end. Let us see what we can do in 2013!