Burton Malkiel, professor of financial economics at Princeton University, is the intellectual midwife of the indexing phenomenon. In his classic A Random Walk Down Wall Street, first published in 1973 (the eighth edition was published last month)...
In this market, brokers are being laid off or are voluntarily opting out, because it's so hard to make their numbers. Yet, some brokers are still stalked like first-round NBA draft picks. Just as coaches try to create championship teams by...
With deeply uncertain economic realities at home, investors are searching for an alternative market, preferably in an industrialized country with low correlation to the U.S. markets. Australia might just do the trick. For most American investors...
The bear market has forced all brokerages to do some strategic rethinking. At Morgan Stanley, the exercise forced management to question a fundamental assumption of the merger of the giant investment bank with retail brokerage powerhouse Dean...
A newlywed couple makes an appointment to discuss opening an account with you. At the meeting, they place orders for about $40,000 in large-cap stocks and deposit an envelope full of cashiers checks and money orders. In response to your mandatory...
Last month's column detailed why financial advisors need to at least consider adding managed accounts to their practices. It also gave some insight into investor types who would benefit most from managed accounts. Now we need to discuss how an...
Even in a bear market, brokerage firms try to hire good producers. Mostly, firms are still downsizing their broker ranks, via attrition or outright dismissals. But one firm is aggressively hiring reps: UBS PaineWebber. In the last quarter of 2002...
Prudential Securities is a few months away from the official close of its spinoff to Wachovia Securities, but you would never know that from the way it's recruiting new brokers. The firm is recruiting again and some say it's because it is afraid...
A group of former Robertson Stephens brokers have filed suit in San Francisco against FleetBoston Financial, the parent company of Quick & Reilly, Fleet's brokerage arm. The brokers charge that the firm violated their employment rights when it...
When I or any of our writers talk to brokers, the question we get asked the most is, How are other brokers surviving? Obviously, it's a sign of these grinding times: After three years of a bear market, many investment advisors are wondering if it...
