20/12/2002
Congratulations to the FSA for yesterday fining CSFB £4 million for something they did in Japan in 1995. we can therefore look forward to them withdrawing the authorisations from the directors of Brewin Dolphin and Aberdeen Asset Management sometime in 2009; if we're lucky.Quite how David Thomas at Brewins hasn't had his authorisation suspended after admitting that he didn't realise that increasing the gearing on a portfolio increased the risk I don't know.
Today is the last trading day for many and I would suggest that there has to be a strong possibility of some short covering especially when one considers how well the S&P has held up. Keep an eye on the dollar to show the lead. ( Yes Morse I know I am plagiarising your idea but I have had to wait all year for you to have a good one!)
I will do the final Muppet awards later. Another one I forgot was our chum Abbey Joseph " Conehead" the chief equity analyst at Goldman Sachs. Yesterday she predicted that next year the S&P would rise by 30%. However I wouldn't rush in to buy just yet. Abbey is a famous perma bull. At the start of this year I seem to remember that she had a price target of 1350 on the S&P . Oooops.
Also in the January edition of Barrons she was asked to tip one stock as her top tip of the year. She went for IBM which at the time was $120. We disagreed with her strongly pointing out the pensions shortfall, the excess of share options and some colourful accounting techniques. IBM topped out at $126 before rapidly declining to $54. Another Oooops.
Harry