Donald Trump may have dropped the "mother of all bombs" in Afghanistan last week, but the prime minister has managed to upstage him with her shock election announcement. As I thought, the Fixed-term Parliaments Act has proved not to be an impediment, with only 13 MPs voting against dissolution.
If you had taken my advice in July to bet on an election in 2017, 2018 or 2019 at combined odds of 26.7%, you would have made a very handsome profit. Of course, this means that my bet on Jeremy Corbyn leaving before the next election will prove to be a dud, though I'm still comfortably ahead.
Rather than charging ahead with new suggestions yet, however, I'm going to examine the various markets so I can deliver a detailed look at the various betting opportunities related to election 2017 next week.
MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
For now, I'm going to assess the French presidential election. As you may remember, I've repeatedly held off betting on Emmanuel Macron to be elected president, just because this contest has been so crazy. But his recent poll jitters have caused his price to fall to 1.99 (50.1%) on Betfair from a peak of nearly 70% last month.
To win, Macron has to get in the top two in Sunday's first round election and then win the run off on 7 May. The second part of the equation should be relatively simple, since he leads Franois Fillon by around 30 points, Marine Le Pen by over 20, and even Jean-Luc Mlenchon by under 20, in head-to-heads.
The first part is harder, but he still leads Mlenchon and Fillon by a decent amount and their support seems to have levelled off. I'm therefore giving him around a 65% chance of getting to the second round and at least a 90% chance of winning in the second round. Hence I'd suggest that you bet on him to win at evens with Skybet.
-
Defeat into victory: the key to Simon Wolfson's successOpinion Next CEO Simon Wolfson claims he owes his success to a book on military strategy in World War II. What lessons does it hold, and how did he apply them to Next?
-
Aircraft leasing companies can lift investors' portfoliosThe aircraft leasing business is a safer way to cash in on air travel and its booming demand. David Prosser explains how it works and how to access it
