It's already pretty well known that the NFL's annual Super Bowl is a big payday for advertisers--but who would've guessed that the Big Game had big implications for Wall Street?
Don't scoff, it's true--or so some financial experts working at the financial heart of the world believe.
There has been a longstanding tradition that the winner of the Super Bowl can be a harbinger of what the year will hold for the financial market. Which is why those who work on Wall Street were likely rooting for the Ravens to win on Sunday, which they did.
It all has to do with the "Super Bowl Stock Market Indicator," which is an old superstition where, believers say, if a team with roots from the old National Football League--or the NFC--wins the Super Bowl, the S&P 500 will be a bull market--or see positive growth--for that year. However, if a team dating back to the American Football League--better known as the AFC--is victorious in the Big Game, the market will suffer that year.
Even though the Ravens are in the AFC, the team was originally the Cleveland Browns--of the original National Football League--which relocated to Baltimore at the behest of owner Art Modell in 1996.
And while it may seem like an odd superstition, apparently, it has some merit. Since the legend started in 1967, the indicator has held an 80 percent accuracy rating.
"It's a rather formidable statistic," Bob Stovall, a managing director and market strategist for Wood Asset Management in Sarasota, Fla, told Business Insider last year.
Of course, the indicator hasn't been 100 percent accurate.
When Baltimore last won the Super Bowl in 2001, which should have been marking a bull market for that year, the stock market that year lost 11 percent. And in 2008, when the Giants beat the Patriots, another bull market would-be harbinger, the market entered a tailspin that started the worst decline since the Great Depression.
"I think the Super Bowl Indicator is a fun indicator if you will," Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist for S&P Capital IQ told Business Insider.
"It shows first off that investors, you know, have an interest and a life outside of Wall Street-they are big sports enthusiasts. At the same time, they are willing to do things that are sort of tongue-in-cheek."
But if the indicator is correct, the market should be a good one this year. Aside from the Ravens being an original NFL team, the 49ers were also part of the original NFL as an expansion team in 1950. If the stats continue to hold true, the winning team's fans won't be the only ones to be excited.