The Wood Rooster HSI shuffled his feathers, pecked at some grain and got out of bed late. It was halfway through the year before he announced dawn. In July the index was pretty much where it had been in February, but it was a golden summer and midway through August it had risen 15%. The cock of the walk then fell from his roost and gave poultry returns until the year turned. For the New Year he pullet’ed out and ended on the high perch.
The Water Rooster strutted around like a barnyard fowl, bantoming with anyone who would listen and had a dubbing. It was October before he re-donned his cockscomb, stopped playing the domesticated bird and put the leg into leghorn. No pheasant-plucker’s son, he then flew high to the end of the year, at which point cocksure turned to poppycock and the chickens started coming home to roost. A small dip before he crested again.
The Metal Rooster cocked it up before he began winging it back. He dropped 25% in the first two months to have everyone’s tail feathers in a spin. From May to July, he thought he was Foghorn Leghorn, leaping to heights unseen and blowing loud with his bluster. Yet the higher they fly . . . by October he was nothing more than chicken feed, dropping to the low point of the year. Given a gallus reprieve, he egged himself back up a little to finish still a distance from his perch.
The Dow Earth Rooster began on a high and spent the rest of the year filleting himself and cackling madly all the way down. Ahead of his time, this earth bird plummeted down by promoting lean meat - dropping nearly 20% of his weight. Truly a Gallus Horribilis. All that can be said in his favour is that he flew with the flock, from 1966 to 1982 the index shed two-thirds of its value - beware the falling Rooster, it falls for thee!
