20 May,2010 12:19 PM IST | | ANI
Predict J P Morgan, world's leading financial services firms; Spain will be runners-up and The Netherlands in third spot
England are a mathematical certainty to regain the World Cup, if analysts at J P Morgan, one of the world's leading financial services firms, are to be believed.
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A Sky News report quotes the analysts as further saying that Spain will be runners-up and The Netherlands in third spot.
While conceding that Brazil is the world's number one team, they say the South American five-time winners face a tough group stage and are likely to be knocked out before reaching the final.
Analysts Matthew Burgess and Marco Dion took data on FIFA rankings, previous football results and bookmakers'' odds, then used them in a quantitative analysis model - or Quant Model, designed for assessing the value of stocks, to come out with their conclusions.
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They said the chances of 1966's win happening again were statistically good
Their results are contained in a 69-page report covering topics ranging from dealing with penalty shoot-outs and the shape of the team to "price trend metrics".
The J P Morgan pair, however, freely admit that their predictions should be taken "with a pinch of salt", but viewed the World Cup as "an ideal opportunity to light-heartedly explain quantitative techniques and demystify the typical Quant framework".
