We love finance and we love trivia. You can test your finance trivia knowledge with the following questions.

This is Part 4 in our ongoing financial trivia series. Scroll down below to find the answers.

 

Q1. The first ATM was in suburban…

a. Melbourne b. New York c. Chicago d. London

 

Q2. All the gold ever mined melded together would fill a cube:

a. 28 feet3 b. 48 feet3 c. 68 feet3 d. 88 feet3

 

Q3. Where does the financial term ‘credit’ derive from?:

a. Greek word for money b. Latin word for trust c. Babylonian word for interest d. Assyrian word for later

 

Q4. Who made the first credit card and when?:

a. Diners Club in 1950 b. American Express in 1950 c. Bankcard in 1950 d. Mastercard in 1950

 

Q5. Since 1928, in a single day the Dow Jones index in the US has gone:

a. Up by more than 10% 8 times b. Down by more than 10% 4 times c. Up or down more than 5% 136 times d. All of the these

 

Quiz answers are below.

 

 

Answers

Q1. The first ATM was in suburban…

Answer d. London

The first ATM was at Barclays Bank in Enfield, London in 1967. It was invented by a Scotsman John Shepherd-Barron while bathing in his tub (or so he claimed), inspired after arriving one minute late one Saturday afternoon at his bank to withdraw money.

He initially proposed a 6 digit pin but his wife complained that was too many to remember so instead he opted for the 4 digit pin we use today.

He pitched the idea of the ATM to Barclay’s CEO in a 90 second spiel over a pink gin and today there are 1.7 million ATMs around the world (over 30,000 in Australia alone).

 

Q2. All the gold ever mined melded together would fill a cube:

Answer c. 68 feet3

According to Warren Buffett:

“Today the world’s gold stock is about 170,000 metric tons. If all of this gold were melded together, it would form a cube of about 68 feet per side. (Picture it fitting comfortably within a baseball infield.) At $1,750 per ounce its value would be $9.6 trillion. Call this cube pile A.

Let’s now create a pile B costing an equal amount. For that, we could buy all U.S. cropland (400 million acres with output of about $200 billion annually), plus 16 Exxon Mobils (the world’s most profitable company, one earning more than $40 billion annually).

After these purchases, we would have about $1 trillion left over for walking-around money (no sense feeling strapped after this buying binge). Can you imagine an investor with $9.6 trillion selecting pile A over pile B?”

 

Q3. Where does the financial term ‘credit’ derive from?:

Answer c. Latin for trust

Credere is a Latin verb meaning to trust or to believe. In addition to ‘credit’, other English words derived from credere include credible, incredible, credo, credulous, creed, creditor, credence, credulity and credentials. Now that’s a mouthful, trust me!

 

Q4. Who made the first credit card and when?

Answer a. and b. Diners Club and American Express in 1950

Credit was first used in Assyria, Babylon and Egypt 3000 years ago. The first advertisement for credit was placed in 1730 by Christopher Thornton, who offered furniture that could be paid off weekly.

 

In 1950, Diners Club and American Express both launched their charge cards in the USA, the first “plastic money”. In 1951, Diners Club issued the first credit card to 200 customers who could use it at 27 restaurants in New York.

 

Q5. Since 1928, in a single day the Dow Jones index in the US has gone:

Answer d. All of these

 

The US market went up by more than 10% in:

+15.3% – 15th March 1933 (during the Great Depression)
+14.9% – 6th October 1931 (ditto)
+12.3% -30th October 1929 (ditto)
+11.3% – 21st September 1932 (ditto)
+11.1% – 13th October 2008 (during the Global Financial Crisis)
+10.9% – 28th October 2008 (ditto)
+10.2% – 21st October 1987 (following Black Monday and the 1987 crash)
Some points to note from the above:

Note the frequency of the month of October mentioned above. This is either due to the pull of the star signs and reflective of the true power of Astrology or it means absolutely nothing. Our money is on the latter.
Remember the quote from Warren Buffett – “Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Greedy When Others Are Fearful”
The US market went down by more than 10% in:

-22.6% – 19th October 1987 (and that’s why our generation call that day Black Monday)
-12.8% – 28th October 1929 (and that’s why the previous generation also called that day Black Monday)
-12.0% – 18th December 1899 (as investors faced the uncertainty of the Y1.9k bug infecting their abacuses – drop us a line if you’re still reading this!)
-11.7% – 29th October 1929 (Black Tuesday)
We hope you enjoyed doing our finance quiz as much as we did writing it. Let us know what you think or let us know if you have some great finance trivia questions!

As always, make smart financial decisions.