Making money from weather forecasting?

zolablue25

I believe that there is already a company doing this in the UK. They sell their data to large stores who can then decide whether to order more ice-cream, BBQs, Umbrellas etc. I also think they do it for clothing stores so they know what lines to prepare. Unfortunately I can't for the life of me remember their name.

Edit: I think they work on 6-12 month advanced data.

MoneyBob

StumpyPumpy wrote: »

I have to say, that your responses to this thread don't give much indication of a statistical analysis

Indeed. I didn't start the thread to have my ideas checked though, or to prove my idea works.

You are correct of course, however. And if I was going to do something other than punt some of my own money on my predictions I'd have to be far more vigourous.

Website idea of "Bob's Weather Predictions" is an interesting idea. I own a number of sites I make money from with ads so the infrastructure is in place to implement that.... but if I posted regularly, I can't be sure, but I'd be concerned a pattern would become apparent over time.

I have heard that the stock market generally becomes slightly more bullish during periods of sunny weather. I guess I could invest in FTSE tracker fund when it's been gloomy a while, and then sell at the end of the subsequent spell of good weather.... but anyone could do that without a prediction. And I suspect the markets don't shift much anyway - probably only as a result of amateur traders, not as a result of the major players (who trade billions automatically based on algorithms) which have the greatest influence. Suspect other confounding factors would render such a system ineffective anyway.

But thanks for all the replies. Some good ideas coming to light now. Keep them coming!

And to re-iterate, my belief is that I can, with a good rate of success, predict the occurrence of periods of clear skies, in the UK, all year round.

I should add as I've not mentioned thus far, that I cannot predict ALL periods of clear skies. So as I've already predicted a spell of clear skies starting on or shortly after July 4th 2015, that doesn't mean there won't be another period of clear sky between now and then - or that this current good weather won't continue right through.

SailorSam

clarky_cat wrote: »

Also if you see a cat washing behind its ears then its going to rain in the next 24 hours. They are coating their ears.

If you have a cat test the theory.

I haven't got a cat, does the same thing work with goldfish.

Hantsman

SailorSam wrote: »

I've got my own system, it's easy and foolproof.
If the cows in the field are laying down ........ it's going to rain.
If they're standing up it will be a sunny day.

I haven't got a cow, does this work with dogs?

Mine is laying down at the moment btw, what should I invest in?

Hantsman

Never mind she's stood up again

Happychappy

Hantsman wrote: »

Never mind she's stood up again

Because she knows the Tsunami is coming after the heavy rain :eek:

somethingcorporate

Have you considered just going to a bookies and betting on the weather? i am sure there is money to be made there and they take bets on lots of weird and wonderful things.

That way you personally benefit (or not) from your own algorithm. When you've made a few million invest in a good lawyer to protect your system and try and commercialise it.

clarky_cat

SailorSam wrote: »

I haven't got a cat, does the same thing work with goldfish.

No but it might work with a catfish

phillw

So you have a way of predicting weather that you didn't come up with yourself and you can't think of a financial way of exploiting it?


At this point the value of the idea is more than the value of what you have, so anyone would be daft to give you that for free.

colsten

MoneyBob wrote: »

I have heard that the stock market generally becomes slightly more bullish during periods of sunny weather. I guess I could invest in FTSE tracker fund when it's been gloomy a while, and then sell at the end of the subsequent spell of good weather

You are an absolute genius - this must be the most profitable money-making scheme in history ever, and I don't know why nobody every before has linked the FTSE to the weather. Have you patented the idea yet? If not, you must before others are getting rich on your idea.

Can you just clarify for me, is it the FTSE 100 or 250 or 350, some, or all of them? How long a good spell of weather should I wait for before selling? And what sort of weather do I best buy in?
Any other tips?

Financial freedom, finally! For everyone and all! Move along George Osborne, we want MoneyBob to do the money stuff. Also, that scottish weather woman on the BBC, name escapes now, should resign.