I’ve been subscribing to the FT for many years. Primarily, I read it to keep track of financial markets. FT’s longer form pieces complement having access to short articles on Bloomberg’s newswire and together they provide a good insight into what is happening in financial markets. However, there are parts of the FT which are perhaps what I would call more on the entertaining side, rather than pure finance. Man or woman cannot live on EURUSD alone, I suppose.
One of these series of articles is called Lunch with the FT in the Life & Arts section, which has been going for thirty years, back when I knew the FT was the one printed on the salmon pink paper (and that was about it). The latest lunch is written by Robin Wigglesworth (FT: Investor Jean-Philippe Bouchaud: ‘The whole bull run is because of an influx of money’ 19 Sep 2025) and is perhaps a rarity for a lunch given that it concerns the quant side of the market (that being said many well known folks on the machine learning side have been interviewed recently, notably Geoff Hinton and Sam Altman). I would strongly recommend reading it for quants and non-quants alike. More broadly, part of the joy of reading a Lunch with the FT article is of course that it is an interview, whilst at the same time revolving around, you guessed it, the lunch and what was eaten.
Whilst the probability of me ever being the subject of a Lunch with the FT article is basically zero, I have nevertheless mused far too much over where I’d suggest for my “Lunch with the FT”. My preference of course, would be a burger joint, however, this might result in a rather short lunch, and interview. Perhaps I could do a stroll of Borough Market, taking in a burger at a stall and some Iraqi kubba, a deep fried dumpling, which is a touch like arancini (but better, although I’m sure Sicilians may disagree), at Juma Kitchen? I also suspect any of these approaches would not result in maximising the benefit in having access to the FT’s expense account for the lunch. I must admit, I do not recall any Lunch with the FT which involved a burger joint, but I am happy for any reader to correct me on this.
Another section of the FT is called HTSI. For those in the know, it stands for How To Spend It. Usually, it’s filled with all sorts of trendy clothes or boats etc. or bling bling if we want to use a catch all shorthand phrase. For someone who has no dress sense and routinely trots up to work wearing Berkshire Hathaway t-shirts (please note: I am trying to change this), I am perhaps not the most natural reader of HTSI. However, a while back I do remember reading an article in HTSI, which was about something very unbling bling which costs a couple of pounds at most: the world of ice cream (FT: The World’s Greatest Ice Cream Stores 12 Aug 2022). Somehow the article, stuck in my mind and over the years I’ve somewhat subconsciously made an effort to visit some of the places on the list.
Recently, ever the gelato explorer, I spotted a gelato shop in Rome, Günther Gelato, which sported a large banner outside with the FT’s logo, proclaiming it was (according to the FT) one of the best ice cream shops on earth. If the FT said this, it had to be true. It was indeed true, the best pistachio gelato I have ever tasted, a subtle shade of brown, just like pistachios, and with actual real pistachios inside. None of the radioactive green tint you usually see on pistachios. As for the watermelon flavour, that was nearly as good. I’ve also realised that I’ve visited some before even reading the article, such as Gelupo in London, which on a seasonal basis makes an excellent blood orange granita.
Ok, all of this has been a bit tongue in cheek. People don’t really look to the FT for reliability and unbiased reporting when it comes to ice cream recommendations (even if in my experience their ice cream reporting is accurate, and it really is my mission to visit all twenty five places on that list at some point). They look to the FT and the financial press like Bloomberg, Reuters etc. for reliability and a lack of bias in its reporting about financial markets and everything driving them such as politics. At a time, where much of the information reaching us is so one sided, it’s even more important.
Indeed, in my area, inflation forecasting, which we do at Turnleaf Analytics, the whole point of our approach is that it is unbiased and data driven. Our team seeks to let the data speak, through the magic of machine learning, to give us a forecast. There isn’t some preconceived notion that inflation has to trend up or lower for any particular country, because of some sort of initial bias. The data decides that for us!
Of course, sometimes the data cannot capture absolutely everything, but there can often be additional information at hand (such as policies coming in, like energy caps), that can be overlaid by us on top. Furthermore, we are continually searching for more data sources to give us additional insights about inflation. Forecasting inflation is like a continual research project: you never quite finish the project.
Financial markets are never easy to understand or to forecast. However, the key to anything within financial markets is having access to accurate and unbiased information (as it is for picking the right gelato place). Allowing bias to slip into the analysis breaks the most important rule: forecasting markets isn’t about what you think should happen, but instead it is about understanding what is most likely to occur. A trader needs to know the latter.
Also please note, this article was not an excuse to somehow meld both burgers and gelato into the text.