The Super Bowl is around the corner, and while that’s cause for moping among Chicago fans giving an impression of their quarterback, it also means it’s time to brace yourself – the eTrade talking baby is likely gearing up for his comeback. While that little baby personifies all that is wrong in the regulatory disconnect between stock trading and the world of futures, it turns out, stock trading IS easy. So easy that a cat throwing something at a computer screen can do a better job than a seasoned professional.

The Observer, a British paper, conducted a year long experiment that pitted the stock picking prowess of a team of wealth management professionals, a group of group of kids still in school, and a house cat against one another. Gawker reports:

While the professionals used their decades of investment knowledge and traditional stock-picking methods, the cat selected stocks by throwing his favourite toy mouse on a grid of numbers allocated to different companies.

Every quarter, the teams were permitted to switch stocks around if they so chose.

The final results? Well, the school children lost money, the professionals made £176, and the cat was the clear winner, making £542. Maybe eTrade does have it partially right. Trading is so easy that ANYONE can do it. Doing it successfully? Well… that might require a lot more than 9 lives, at this rate.