Moggie picks cream of shares

City fat-cats wailing over the latest reversals in stock markets were given fresh cause for grief yesterday after a genuine feline was revealed to have beaten the professionals at their own game.

Schrodinger, an eight-year-old moggie, selected shares which recorded a rise of 4.35 per cent in the year to mid-August, compared to 0.37 per cent from a benchmark index for his sector. His owner, Paul Slade, is considering hiring him to City investment houses as a consultant: "It would have to be a pretty hefty fee, like several tons of premium cat- food, because he does have a taste for the high life. There would have to be a claws in his contract about this."

Schrodinger picked his stocks by choosing 35 pieces of dry food from a grid of 250 squares representing companies in the FT-SE 250 index.

His fund, Consolidated Accumulation Trust, outperformed his benchmark index and also the average unit trust in the UK Smaller Companies sector, which only recorded a rise of 3.25 per cent.

The feline financier's skills are even more astonishing given that many experts have long considered share selection in the smaller-companies sector to involve even more skill than with blue-chip stocks.

Mr Slade, a freelance journalist, rescued Schrodinger and his brother, Tabby, from a cat sanctuary six years ago. But it was not until last year that his cat's financial skills found their true expression.

The Long Weekend, page 26