The Bond Vigilantes Christmas Quiz

Here is this year’s Christmas Quiz. Please email us your entries by 5pm on Friday 18 December.  First prize is £100 of Amazon vouchers and there are 4 copies of “Too Big To Fail” by Andrew Ross Sorkin (in which Hank Paulson accuses Alistair Darling of doing something too rude to repeat in this blog) for runners-up.  As usual the competition is open to all of our readers, clients or not, and as usual you probably won’t need a full house to win the prizes.

1) There are five European capital cities that are home to Champions League/European Cup winning football teams.  What are they?

2) An ounce of gold currently costs approximately $1150.  What price per ounce did Gordon Brown get for the first tranche of the UK’s 125 tonnes of gold reserves when it was auctioned in July 1999?

3) What is defying its name and stops being circular this month?

4) Moore 64, Picasso 73, Warhol 75, and Haring 88.  What was 77?

5) Bud Light used to be the biggest selling beer in the world, but in 2008 it was overtaken by which brand?

6) Finding what would explain how particles with no mass can make up matter which has mass?

7) If this was a joke, what’s the difference between bird flu and swine flu?

8) BA001 used to take half the time of a standard flight to get from London to New York.  It now takes over 2 hours longer – why?

9) In November this year, what became the biggest grossing entertainment release of all time, with a worldwide gross of over $500 million in under a week?

10) Which artist wowed crowds this autumn with a show that included the regular firing of a red wax shell from a cannon at the gallery walls?

11) What topped the NME’s “best album of the last ten years” list?

Optional bonus question – was there a better album, and if so what is it?  Suggestions will go to the kangaroo court and may be awarded an extra point if we go,” you know what, that WAS a better album”.

12) Covered bonds and Residential Mortgage Backed Securities are both fixed interest instruments secured on home mortgages.  What is the significant difference between the two?

13) So far in 2009 which artist’s painting has sold for the highest amount at auction (and although it’s a high number, it’s only 50% of 2008’s most expensive work of art)?

14)  “A great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money”.  What?

15) Which James Bond film has the longest title?

16)  Which Arabic word meaning legal instrument or deed is used to describe bonds structured in order to comply with the Islamic prohibition on charging interest?

17) Which headline-grabbing celebrity’s real name is Eldrick?

18) Which cocktail is made from lemon juice, 1 shot of gin, 2 shots of cherry brandy, soda water, and ice?

19)  What’s the proper name of the instrument made famous by George Formby?

20)  For which charity did the M&G Bond Vigilantes grow moustaches last month?

Click here to email your entry.  Click here to read terms and conditions.  The information we collect from you is solely used to contact you in the event that you have won a prize. This competition is closed.