Author: Thomas

A Goldman Trading Desk That Once Had 500 People Is Down to Three Many Wall Street traders are concerned about being replaced by machines in the future, but at one Goldman Sachs Group Inc. unit it’s already happened. “Equity trading: 15-20 years ago we had 500 people making markets in stocks. Today we have three,” Goldman Sachs President David Solomon said Monday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California. Solomon said the introduction of... Read more

Singapore’s Bourse Is Expanding Its Stock Research Unit By Livia Yap and Andrea Tan March 21, 2018, 5:00 PM EDT SGX team covers about 200 small and medium-sized companies Number of stocks with over $1 million traded daily has risen Can the people who regulate a company also produce research useful to an investor considering buying its stock? Singapore Exchange Ltd. says the answer is yes. It’s expanded an in-house team dedicated to producing reports on firms... Read more

Ever since 24 stockbrokers signed an agreement under a Buttonwood tree in 1792, “Wall Street” has enjoyed a money party.  Business has been on a growth trajectory with huge margins, with just a few hiccups,  from that day in May until the financial crisis.   What Wall Street is experiencing now is not a “hiccup” but a structural change that will morphe the “business” into a low margin low growth industry.  What is happening is not... Read more

Global investors look to corporates to facilitate meetings directly as they cut back on sell side Global investors look to corporates to facilitate meetings directly, as they cut back on sell-side corporate access following MiFID II implementation. For immediate release London, 9 January 2018 – Investors anticipate significant changes to the way meetings with company management are facilitated under MiFID II regulations, which have now come into effect. Research by QuantiFire, in partnership with the Investor... Read more

Building a US investor base after MiFID II Brian Rafferty spells out the ‘Rafferty’s Rules’ which will help companies to find investor support in the US after the new regulations come into effect. Growing up, I was delighted when an Australian friend first used the phrase ‘Rafferty’s Rules,’ which I learned meant ‘no formal rules in a competition.’ Today, new, old and unwritten rules and emerging IR Best Practice comprise the ‘Rafferty’s Rules’ free-for-all currently... Read more

The typical company earnings call is hardly primetime entertainment. Executives trot out jargon-laden statements carefully honed for their non-committal blandness, while analysts vie with each other to ask the most technical questions they can about the most recondite parts of the company’s business, all on a conference-call line that makes the speakers sound as if they’re sitting under a bathtub. But video streaming service Netflix is the latest company that’s decided to shake up the... Read more

https://www.wsj.com/articles/spotify-disrupted-the-music-world-now-its-doing-the-same-to-wall-street-1516024778 Spotify AB upended the world of music with its popular streaming service. Now it is threatening to do the same to Wall Street.  Banks working on Spotify’s unusual public share listing stand to collect a fraction of the fees underwriters typically charge in big IPOs, in a blow to the already beleaguered stock-selling business.  Spotify’s three advisers—Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, and Allen & Co.—are poised to share roughly $30 million in fees, though that... Read more

MiFID2 Impacts for Investor Relations: one-page summary Published on Published onJanuary 27, 2018 Benedicte Thibor   The new MiFID2 rules on payments for investment that came into effect on 3 January have already shrunk the market for European equity research, although the ultimate impact of the regulations probably won't be evident before the end of 2018. But it is transforming massively the Industry with some indirect impacts on Investor Relations. Most commentary has understandably focused on... Read more