Despite the authorities branding the FA Cup as a major competition, it isn't. The competition is a distraction from where the real money lies and is equivalent in stature to the domestic cups in other European territories (Coppa Italia, Copa Del Rey and DFB-Pokal). The team selections of the top teams are indicative of this status.
We choose not to trade on the early rounds of the FA Cup in line with the majority of the biggest operators in Asia. After the 3rd Round games and the 4th Round draw, we do have some opinions on which teams are being favoured by the footballing establishment - we were on West Ham big-style last year as we detected Brooking's input ahead of the market. Indeed, our position culminated in a trading strategy for the final where we sold Liverpool supremacy over 90 minutes but we backed the scousers to win outright (which was a pretty cool trade really!).
It is worth noting that two of the next three rounds of the FA Cup are adjacent to Champions League 1/8 Finals matches. We believe that there is value in supporting Chelsea, West Ham, Tottenham, Fulham and Manchester City on the indices this season. There are rumours of supportive machinations behind Portsmouth but being drawn at Old Trafford means we will sit on the fence on this one for now.
But, to be honest, who cares?
