England and London Wasps flanker James Haskell has decided to try his hand at an altogether more daunting challenge by taking part in an unusual celebrity charity challenge.
In the City index Spread Betting Celeb Trader Challenge, Haskell was given £2,500 to try and make as much money as possible from the markets, following in the footsteps of other stars as diverse as Cohen and singer Alicia Keys. Having experienced his fair share of injury problems in recent years, Haskell will have had plenty of time to prepare, but how did he fare?
Taking stock
After returning to Wasps last summer, Haskell has looked at branching out in preparation for retirement, but this foray into spread betting on the financial markets looked like his bravest move yet. Having to make bold decisions in a split second on different stocks, the Celeb Trader Challenge would test him like nothing in his 10-year career as a professional player.
After a week of trading, Haskell admitted that it wasn’t all plain sailing, saying that it was harder than it looked to trade certain markets. He spoke of it being difficult to do, especially as maths wasn’t his strongest subject, but claimed that he had scored some success while going short (trading on the value going down) on the FTSE 100 index of leading companies in the UK.
Raising the game
At the end of the week, Haskell’s competitive spirit helped him to get a better return on his investment (ROI) than Cohen, but he still has a few trades that have yet to be concluded. Haskell will soon hope that they pay off, ensuring that he raises more money for Sebastian’s Action Trust – his chosen charity.
During his week-long stint poring over streams of financial data that would spell out the difference between success and failure, Haskell also gave his thoughts on the final game in the Lions test series against Australia. Correctly, he said that the Lions would roar to victory against the Wallabies, but surely even he didn’t predict it would be by such a massive margin!
Haskell looks to have missed his chance of representing the Lions, but for now, he can look back on his week of charitable work and try and get in shape for the new season.
