http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113781324636252762.html?mod=mkts_main_todays_mkts_tac ------------------------- 1) Wood Chuck Last summer, Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Charles Prince was deposed in a shareholder lawsuit involving Jack Grubman, the bank's ex-telecom analyst whose work led to allegations of biased research. [Wood Chuck] A transcript of that deposition, released recently, reveals that at one point Mr. Prince, a lawyer by training, drew a blank on common Wall Street parlance. Plaintiffs' lawyer: Was Grubman the ax on telecom? Mr. Prince's lawyer: The ax? Plaintiffs' lawyer: You know what that term means? Prince: I don't know what that means, I'm sorry. Plaintiffs' lawyer: You have never heard the term, "the ax"? Prince: I understand what an ax is. You chop wood with an ax. Plaintiffs' lawyer: You have never heard the term "ax" being the leading analyst, the most reputed analyst, the analyst who supposedly could make or break a company? Prince: No, sir. ------------------------- 2) Fast Start Amy McCarthy, Playboy's Cybergirl of the Month for January 2005, is killing the market. [Amy McCarthy, Playboy model, may have found a second career as a stock-picking wiz.] Amy McCarthy, Playboy model, may have found a second career as a stock-picking wiz. Since Jan. 1, Ms. McCarthy and nine other Playboy models have been participating in a stock-picking contest set up by Playboy Enterprises Inc. and market-data provider TradingMarkets.com. The top performer at year end gets $50,000 to give to the charity of her choice. Ms. McCarthy, sister of the more-famous Jenny McCarthy, was up more than 20% with a portfolio of five stocks as of the end of trading Thursday, beating every single one of the more than 6,000 mutual funds tracked by Morningstar Inc. "I'm so excited," she says. "Why didn't I always do this?" How'd she do it? Well, for starters, she didn't look at a single earnings report. She followed her heart, buying StemCells Inc., for instance, "because I'd like to have more research on different types of diseases." Through Friday, the models have clocked a 3.41% average return, compared with 1.06% for the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. Some experts scoff at the models' early success. "In any large group of stock pickers, some will show great success over short periods on a purely chance basis," says Eugene Fama, finance professor at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. "The nature of journalism is to focus on such chance outcomes."
The lesson... the market is full of 5-minute heroes like the Playboy gal. And there are also ppl in the market who are incredibly successful but still don't know some very common things. The former may boast about their success while the latter doesn't shy away from asking if they really don't know.
LOL evidently you have little experience with lawyers being questioned under oath. you ever hear the phrase "playing possum"? feigning ignorance ranks right up there with claiming dysmnesia as an excuse for not responding to a disagreeable question.
The ax was the market maker or makers who were buying or selling so much stock they controlled the action on a level II screen. Jack Grubman was the Blodgett of telecom not the ax.
"Ax" or more often used "the ax" is a term I heard while working in NYC which I took to mean "a person who controls the action", the "main man", so to speak. In daytrading naz stocks during the go-go years, I learned that it referred to the MM a trader had to keep watch for on level II, e.g., GSCO, MSCO, etc. There's a big world beyond level II out there, however.
"the ax" is a term for research analysts as well. generally, it is which ever analyst is the "best" on any given stock or industry. in the example above Jack Grubman was definately the ax on a number of different stocks as well as the telecom industry.
Telegraph: Playboy pin-ups are on the money when it comes to managing assets: "It's the latest gimmick from investor website TradingMarkets.com, which has enlisted the help of its 10 favourite Playmates to pick their stocks of the year and see how they fare against the experts..." TripleWitchingFriday.com: 10 Playboy models trading the markets (*Not safe for work) Amy McCarthy Amy Sue Cooper Christine Smith Courtney Culkin Deanna Brooks Jillian Grace Kara Monaco Lindsey Vuolo Pennelope Jimenez Pilar Lastra