Cat's Unusual 'Habit' Could Turn His Owner Into A Millionaire

Jill Insley, a financial journalist from the UK, had a successful career in her own right, but it was ultimately her cat Orlando who grabbed global headlines in 2012. At the time, Insley was the head editor for both the Guardian's Money section and the Observer's Cash section, and a project at work made her look at her fluffy pet in a new way.

As it happened, the Observer organized an investment contest where top financial minds competed to see who could turn the most profit from the same initial investment over the course of a year. A group of experts was selected to battle over bragging rights, and judging by the shortlist of challengers, the competition looked stiff.

Who were these savvy stockpickers? First, there was Paul Kavanagh of stockbrokers Killik & Co. Then, Justin Urquhart Stewart of wealth management company Seven Investment Management joined the competition. Followed by Andy Brough, fund manager for Schroders, who signed up and was up against students from the John Warner School in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. But there was one last participant who was unlike the rest.

See, Jill Insley saw the contest and was struck by an idea. If all these investment experts were going to duke it out, why not toss in a wild card? She proposed they make the competition a little more interesting by including a total outsider, someone with zero financial experience and no stake in the game — her cat Orlando.

Participants loved the idea of a little chaos tossed in to their competition, so Orlando joined in. Luckily, the kitty didn't need to understand the terms of the competition, which were actually fairly simple. At the outset, the teams invested 5,000 pounds in five companies. But when it came to making their game moves, the pros and Orlando were split on strategy.

Orlando had a unique method most pros might feel rash attempting: trusting his cat toys. Well, specifically, his most prized mouse toy. To pick the stocks, Insley stepped in to give Orlando an assist. She created a numbered grid with each section representing a different company. Whichever number the cat flung his mouse toy at, that's the stock they picked.

While the pros watched the numbers and relied on data to strategically invest, Orlando and Jill kept to their random strategy. At first, it was difficult to say whether Orlando's feline senses had made any real impact on their portfolio, though as they rounded out the third fiscal quarter, the cat was out of the bag.

There was a moment in September when the numbers were making a fool of Orlando. He was behind all of his competitors and by a lot! While the experts had shown a generated profit of £497, the cat was dragging his paws, looking at a takeaway of just half that.

In the third quarter, Orlando had pulled only a £292 profit. No, it was nothing to purr over, and Orlando and his mom Jill worried that this had all been a grave mistake. However, as many cats have proven, just when you think they’re down for the count, they pounce back.

Orlando did something the other financial experts wouldn't dare to attempt — he swapped stocks out at the end of the third quarter. It was a big risk, and whether the last-ditch effort would pay off or sink him further behind, they had to wait and see. Meanwhile the experts held their breaths.

Because while everyone had a good chuckle over Orlando’s participation in the contest, depending on the final numbers, he had the potential to call into question the value of supposed experts. Could a cat beat the humans? It opened the conversation to a hotly debated idea: do prestigious degrees and Wall Street experience really matter?

Whether the stock market can be beaten by strategy or if it's all random is a long-running debate, one that economist Burton Malkiel outlined with the "random walk hypothesis" in his book, A Random Walk Down Wall Street. Malkiel believed studying past market trends to predict future trends was a waste of time, and similar to the contest involving Orlando, he used animals as an example.

"A blindfolded monkey throwing darts at a newspaper's financial pages could select a portfolio that would do just as well as one carefully selected by experts," Malkiel wrote. Swap the blindfolded monkey for a mouse-tossing cat, and according to Malkie's hypothesis, both are qualified financial advisors. Others have tested this theory.

Much like Orlando, some other whiskered critters turned their eyes, or ears, to the stock market. In 2014, Austrian conceptual artist Michael Marcovici conducted an experiment where he trained rats to recognize patterns in the foreign-exchange futures market. The four rodent mavericks — Mr. Lehmann, Ms. Kleinworth, Ms. Coutts, and Mr. Morgan — proved better at reading trends than the top fund managers. 

The rats beat financial analysts at their own game. Jill Insley and the rest of the eyes watching the investment contest waited curiously to see if Orlando could do the same. As they rounded out the fourth fiscal quarter, the kitty had a lot on the line. Had his third-quarter trades paid off? Or was he just a housecat goofing around?

In an epic comeback, Orlando’s profits turned around. His competitors watched in amazement as the feline proved a finance wiz when he increased the average of his portfolio by 4.2%. When they'd run out the clock, Orlando did more with his original £5,000 than any of his competitors by a significant margin.

Breaking down the numbers, the professionals ended the 4th quarter with an average of £5,176.60, and Orlando, the furry little magnate, rounded things out at £5,542.60. His toy tossing strategy set him £366 ahead of the pack — not so bad for a first-time investor! But after he had his first taste of success, did Orlando hang up his mouse?

It doesn't look like Orlando is going to work on Wall Street anytime soon. But as a reward for his stock-picking sensibilities, his mom got him a fancy red collar, a reference to the trademark red suspenders worn by competitor Urquhart-Stewart. As for whether Orlando's victory was thanks to his own financial powers or was just totally random, his fellow competitors aren't sure, but they did leave some parting words.

To chalk up Orlando's stock-picking prowess as luck might be doing the cat a disservice. After all, the financial experts knew to give credit where credit was due. As Justin Urquhart-Stewart told the Guardian, “It's time to crack open the Whiskas! The cat’s got talent.” And while relying on your own cats for stock tips isn't recommended, some businesses haven't entirely written off the business value of feline energy.

Instead of trusting them to pick stocks, one Ohio-based transportation company thought of incorporating cats into their finance office. These feline recruits weren't tasked with making important decisions, but the employer had a theory that they'd make a radical improvement in the way other strategies had failed.

So, the bosses decided to adopt two tiny kittens, one light orange and the other striped with brown. These weren't just any ordinary felines, so the execs had to give them some particularly interesting names...

Management decided the cats would be called Debit and Credit. These monikers may seem rather unorthodox, but for kitties living in the finance wing of a company, they're fitting! Of course, employees were worried if the kittens could get along.

The little guys became quick friends with one another. During the evening, when the rest of the employees went home, they stayed in the office overnight. However, people made sure to visit them on weekends.

Clearly, they're plain adorable. However, beyond their inherent cuteness, Debit and Credit serve some particularly special purposes for that office's culture that most people wouldn't suspect.

The kittens carry a whole load of psychological benefits. When they crawl past your desk and brush against your leg, you're getting way more out of those actions than it first appears on the surface.

According to psychologist Lotte Spijkerman, office pets "reduce stress and increase productivity, mainly because they interact with you of their own accord and, when they pop over to your work station, it’s a good reminder that you might need to take a break."

However, despite all the clear benefits that office cuties such as Debit and Credit may bestow on a workplace, there's also one major potential drawback that could get in the way of this seemingly perfect arrangement.

This obstacle is the fact that so many Americans are allergic to these cuddly creatures. Cat allergies are twice as common as aversions to canines and can be truly debilitating for the individual affected. This company, however, found a workaround.

"My building is small — there are only 6 of us. One of them is allergic, but she doesn’t care. The others stay in another building," one employee revealed. It seems like things couldn't have turned out more perfectly. Still, there were other issues.

The primary objective was not only to make the human occupants of the office happy; the cats' well-being was also a priority. Clearly, Debit and Credit needed certain amenities to have a good life as well.

The lucky kittens received many toys to play with, cozy sweatshirts to cuddle up in, their very own beds, and a whole slew of other treats provided especially for them.

If Debit and Credit ever get bored of horsing around inside the office, they can always go look out the window and stare at the trees or passing birds. It's truly a win-win situation.

The pair was so undeniably cute that the office decided they needed to make an Instagram for them, so the entire world could see just how precious Debit and Credit truly were.

One video in particular got a whole lot of attention, racking up thousands of views online. The clip showed the two kittens fighting over and playing with a cardboard box bigger than both of them combined.

While they were in awe of the adorable setup, people on the internet couldn't help but wonder how in the world employees got any work done. It seemed like having two bundles of cuteness around all the time would make concentrating difficult, to say the least.

"This is adorable. I wouldn't get any work done," one commentator remarked. In response, an employee confirmed that "it's so hard not to play and snuggle [all day long]." Sounds like a good problem to have.

The trend of introducing animals into the office environment is only growing. Workplaces across the country are catching on to this bold new idea for increasing productivity and happiness. Animals are making their way into a lot of different environments, even the most stressful ones.