Falk Family Windfall

Fifty years ago, an Ocean Reef homeowner started an invitation-only New Year’s Day party featuring the world’s worst champagne and the world’s greatest hot dogs. Guests could put $10 in a pot and guess the Dow Jones closing average at the end of the following New Year. The party – still invitation only- has grown and so has the pot. This year, there were 220 or so guesses and thus $2200 in the pot. At the Market open on Thursday, Dec. 31st, there were 20 or so guesses close to the market close of 30,400 on Dec. 30th. The market dropped 100 points early in the day but then rebounded. Believing erroneously that the market closed early that day, the winner at 1:30 was 11 year old Dexter Falk, son of Christian Falk and grandson of Vic and Linda Falk with a guess of 30,472, a guess more than 92 points closer to the close than any of the other 200 guesses. His grandparents were notified and they promptly called Dexter who, needless to say, was one pretty happy kid. Unfortunately for all concerned the Market had not closed at 1:30 and promptly shot up 100 points in the next 3 hours of trading … Poor young Dexter was notified and all family members went into a deep slump. The Market continued to rise and closed for the year at 30,606.48. The winner of the pot with a guess of 30,611 closest to the final close was … wait for it
… Christian Falk, Dexter’s father! Thus the $2000+ windfall stayed all in the Falk family … What are the chances? Congratulations to the fantastically fortunate Falk family! By the way, Dexter and his father have promised not to blow their winnings but to invest them – they didn’t say in what or what their guess for the Dow Jones pot would be next year. Where did Christian get the number 30,611 for this year’s close? His birthday is June 11th. Last year’s winner based her guess on her zip code so you can see that there is a lot of skill involved in this yearly Ocean Reef tradition!