The understated lives of securities analysts
In the old days, the job of stock analyst was only one step up on the ladder of excitement from that of actuary. Dreary conference calls with CFO’s, boring lunches down at the NYSSA. Times have changed. We had never heard of stock analysts getting death threats, and certainly not threats that were splashed across the front pages. Now we have. Times of London:
Meredith Whitney, the analyst who prompted a $369 billion (£177 billion) plunge in the value of US shares on Thursday by issuing a negative note on Citigroup, hit out at Wall Street’s culture of intimidation yesterday after receiving several death threats from investors in the bank.
Ms Whitney, a CIBC analyst who is married to the former World Wrestling Entertainment champion Death Mask, prompted a near 7 per cent drop in Citigroup’s shares on Thursday, after suggesting that the bank needed to raise more than $30 billion to restore its capital cushion.
She also downgraded her recommendation on Citigroup’s shares to “market underperform” in the note that set off America’s biggest stock market decline since August.
Ms Whitney, Forbes’s second-highest ranked stock picker for 2007, told The Times: “People are scared to be negative, especially when a company has such a wide holding. Clients are not pleased with my call and I have had several death threats…
We are sure it is completely by chance that the analyst getting death threats is married to WWE wrestler Death Mask. Any resemblance to a production by Vince McMahon is purely coincidental.