smart-money

Noun

smart money (uncountable)

1. (collective) Experienced, well-informed investors, gamblers, etc. considered as a group.
   • First, we will try to understand the market using a simplified model focusing on the psychological perspective of two major groups: the smart money players who are assumed to be driving the market, and the general, uninformed public.2012, Adam Grimes, The Art and Science of Technical Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 32

   Antonyms:

   dumb money

2. The money invested or bet by such people; by extension, the opinions of such people.
   • The smart money is on a half percent cut in the basic bank lending rates before the end of the week.

   Antonyms:

   dumb money

3. Money paid by a person to buy himself off from some unpleasant engagement or some painful situation.
4. (historical) Money allowed to soldiers or sailors, in the English service, for wounds and injuries received; also, a sum paid by a recruit, previous to being sworn in, to procure his release from service.
   • The reader may remember that Mr Allworthy gave Tom Jones a little horse, as a kind of smart-money for the punishment which he imagined he had suffered innocently.1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC
5. Vindictive or exemplary damages; damages beyond a full compensation for the actual injury done.
   • September 30 1893, Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th Marquess of Londonderry, "Empolyers' Liability Bill", quoted in The Parliamentary Debates
     it made was paid by employers to workmen employers liable for injuries resulting as smart money