smart money
4
5.6
- noun
- Jargon
:
dinero inteligente
- The big money, the smart money, is paying more attention to these leading indicators, which suggests the Fed is going too far.
- smart money is betting
- smart money says
- smart money thinks
Examples
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The smart money had been on Brinkley, back when it was clear a single string held that man up on Sundays, but Brinkley faded, and the network did not call up Cord to replace him.
Fiction book (2001) -
The consequence is that the smart money will simply step away from this.
Blog text (6) -
So the smart money among people who are my personal friends is that locality is going to be the thing to go.
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But for anyone bent on wagering this time around, the smart money's on the youngsters.
Blog text (26) -
Many investors believe the smart money is shifting towards renewable energy stocks.
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According to analysts, the smart money predicts a rise in tech sector investments.
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With insider tips, the smart money is expected to invest heavily in emerging markets.
How Informed
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'punitive damages' is a specialized, legal sense that cannot be derived from 'smart' (clever) + 'money' (currency); a B1 learner who knows the parts would not predict punishment-awarding damages. The phrase is idiomatic/specialized (and even other common senses like ‘money bet by informed investors’ are metaphorical), so its meaning is not transparently compositional.
Etymology
One popular story says smart money comes from horse racing and early markets, where large bets by experienced backers showed which choice they trusted; that trusted money was called the 'smart money', so today it means money invested by people with expert knowledge.