Market Structure Insights
December 11, 2013
Do retail investors matter? Depends what you mean. They’re important and valuable as investors. I once headed investor relations for a company with thousands of retail holders. I was president of an IR services firm that focused on retail-targeting strategies. But when people ask me...
December 4, 2013
I’m reminded of a joke (groans). A man is sent to prison. As he settles into his captive routine he’s struck by a midafternoon affair among his jailed fellows. One would shout out, “Number 4!” The others would laugh. His cellmate, seeing the newbie’s consternation,...
November 27, 2013
Happy Thanksgiving! Here’s a phrase Karen’s grandmother coined that you may find useful this time of year: “We ate to dullness.” Since many of you are appropriately absent this week from the IR chair (or whichever office you occupy), we’ll revisit past turf. Among the...
November 20, 2013
In the timeless 1987 movie The Princess Bride, Vizzini the Sicilian, played riotously with a lisp by Wallace Shawn, keeps declaring things “inconceivable!” Swordsman Inigo Montoya, portrayed then by Homeland’s Mandy Patinkin, finally says, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means...
November 13, 2013
Today a new era begins. One day in May 1792, 24 brokers gathered beneath a buttonwood tree in lower New York City and agreed to confederate in conducting their stock-in-trade. Thus began the New York Stock Exchange. Today, the NYSE is slated to cease trading...
November 6, 2013
We were in Kansas again. We set a personal record, visiting the state twice last week. Even Wichita is nice this time of year, as this photo shows Saturday from our downtown Hyatt Regency room on the Arkansas River – don’t ask me why that...