Led Zep Market Analysis
Numerous Wall Street analysts, strategists, and economists over the years have managed to laden their commentary with references to their favorite bands, songs, sports teams, etc.
It is all but unavoidable: Assume the average age of the senior echelons of most research departments are age 50-60; That leads us to a top level of management who all came of age during the 1960s & ’70s — quite a prolific and influential period for music. (Most of them probably wouldn’t have passed the industry mandated urine test back when they were in college)
Which brings us to today’s tidbit: An extended Led Zeppelin reference-fest in the market commentary by Bernie McSherry of Cuttone & Co. It includes paragraphs such as this one:
“Corporate guidance has been positive in recent months and assuming that there hasn’t been a widespread communication breakdown, analyst expectations of a 184% YOY increase in profits for the S&P 500 should be exceeded. Banking stocks in particular should lead the way, however, if Alcoa’s disappointing report is any indication of what we can expect, this earnings season may turn out to be a heartbreaker.”
I spy 2 Zep songs in that paragraph alone, 7 in the article all told (see first comment for my short list). Did I miss any?
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Hat tip Paul, Dow Jones Market Talk
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Source:
Is She Buying the Stairway To Heaven?
Bernie McSherry
Cuttone & Co., January 12, 2010
http://www.cuttone.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Is-She-Buying-the-Stairway-To-Heaven-.html
Official site
http://www.ledzeppelin.com/
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January 12th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Here are the 7:
Stairway To Heaven
Song Remains the Same
Dancing Days
Communication Breakdown
Heartbreaker
Good Times, Bad Times
Dazed and Confused
January 12th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
I bet you’ll find more if you play the article backwards.
January 12th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
great memory…
How might an analyst fit in the phrase “a bustle in your hedgerow” ?
January 12th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
The VIX index indicates that investors are comfortably numb
January 12th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
BB thinks the world has been “Saved by Zero”
January 12th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
Ben thinks we have been “Saved By Zero”
But we’re just getting in Deeper and Deeper
because One Thing Leads to Another
and still there are Less Cities More Moving People
January 12th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
I thought “Everything means less than zero…”
January 12th, 2010 at 7:17 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JybkqBGrVs
Just because it rocks, and clear channels has never heard of it. Too long or too good?
January 12th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
It’s also a great signaling tool and shortcut, like how some (still) use the occasional french word(s) such as today a reference to eminence grise. It definitely falls into generational buckets, yesterday I threw out the words “Brick in the Wall” and no one bit or perked up: their loss. Your observation makes me wonder what nuanced phrases, clauses, and snippets will be tossed out in the decades to come after some of today’s youth grows older (not up) from asyncopatic guttural grunts.
January 12th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Phrases, clauses…
Do I smell “Conjunction Junction?”
I gotta whole lotta love for Schoolhouse Rock.
January 12th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
Unfortunately, those Floridian citrus farmers are having their lemons squeezed by this cold snap. And their tangerines. Unfortunate, but that’s the way it is :(
January 12th, 2010 at 8:17 pm
@teraflop Says:
January 12th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
It’s also a great signaling tool and shortcut, like how some (still) use the occasional french word(s) such as today a reference to eminence grise. It definitely falls into generational buckets, yesterday I threw out the words “Brick in the Wall” and no one bit or perked up: their loss. Your observation makes me wonder what nuanced phrases, clauses, and snippets will be tossed out in the decades to come after some of today’s youth grows older (not up) from asyncopatic guttural grunts.
———
Just saying that “BR” our incredible Host has “Jumped Shark” with the “Stress” like many of us….so give him a break.
About that “Brick in the Wall”……..viewers might like this one:
Pink Floyd – Another Brick in the Wall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_bvT-DGcWw
Watch and see and think back to those times…and think about how much CRAZIER IT GETS! One could ROLL EYES until BRAIN HANGS OUT.
Anyway…we keep plugging on trying to get “Information for Truth” out there. We just keep keeping on……
January 12th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
What stress ?
January 12th, 2010 at 8:22 pm
I’ve heard the term “gravitas” on TV more the past couple years than I heard the prior half century, one talking head uses it and then everybody piles on (like “gone missing” and “boots on the ground” barfff.
Greenday is the only current musical group with ummm gravitas IMO.
The British groups and the Talking Heads had fun with the language, their songs were loaded with political and social commentary and satire. Hard not to break a smile hearing the Kinks sing “Apeman”.
The people aghast at the political comments from the Dixie Chicks must have been under a musical rock from about 1965 to 1985
January 12th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
BTW…not al of us are Anarchists……I live in a house with flowered wall paper that I love and I have “indoor plants” that I care and water…and NO Granite Counter Tops…but I’ve had to replace my appliances with Stainless Steel…and I do have a Jacuzzi in my bath…and there’s a Lexus in my Garage.
So…where do “I” fit? ……..”We don’t need no Education…hey TEACHER ….leave us Kids ALONE!”
When kids today are put on “Meds” one does have to wonder…and when even folks with “flowered wallpaper” and “living plants in their house” are sort of “out of it” because we don’t want “Granite Countertops” and were forced to buy “Stainless Steel Appliances” to be (as the great CNBC SUCKS used to say “FASHION FORWARD”) then you gotta know that our GREAT MEDIA is CLUELESS about real Americans out there.
They focus on one Demographic and ignore the buying power and influence of the rest… Just saying..
January 12th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
Thanks for the heads up — huge Zep fan from the days of my youth when I found out what it meant to be a man . . .
January 12th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
I don’t get it…
January 13th, 2010 at 12:29 am
The subtitle to the piece could have been “When the Levee Breaks”…
January 13th, 2010 at 12:36 am
I get all my investment research from Dead heads…
January 13th, 2010 at 1:50 am
the recovery is over the hills and far away
January 13th, 2010 at 2:38 am
[...] – Led Zep market analysis. [...]
January 13th, 2010 at 4:45 am
Apparently, this thing has been going on for a while;
http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/429055-bernie-mcsherry/29466-grab-that-cash-with-both-hands-and-make-a-stash
And just because I can (again I think) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-967crKpg-M
Do the Wall Street shuffle
Hear the money rustle
Watch the greenbacks tumble
Feel the Sterling crumble
You need a yen to make a mark
If you wanna make money
You need the luck to make a buck
If you wanna be Getty, Rothschild
You’ve gotta be cool on Wall Street
You’ve gotta be cool on Wall Street
When your index is low
Dow Jones ain’t got time for the bums
They wind up on skid row with holes in their pockets
They plead with you, buddy can you spare the dime
But you ain’t got the time
Doin’ the….
Doin’ the….
Oh, Howard Hughes
Did your money make you better?
Are you waiting for the hour
When you can screw me?
‘Cos you’re big enough
To do the Wall Street Shuffle
Let your money hustle
Bet you’d sell your mother
You can buy another
Doin’ the….
Doin’ the….
You buy and sell
You wheel and deal
But you’re living on instinct
You get a tip
You follow it
And you make a big killing
On Wall Street
January 13th, 2010 at 8:35 am
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant are philosophers:
“As we wind on down the road, our shadow’s taller than our soul.” ~ Stairway To Heaven
“Sit and wait and all will be revealed.” ~ Kashmir
“The seasons of emotions and like the winds they rise and fall. This is the wonder of devotion, I see the torch we all must hold.” ~ The Rain Song
“So tonight you better stop and rebuild all your ruins, because peace and trust can win the day despite of all your losing.” ~ Immigrant Song
“Mellow is the man who knows what he’s been missing. Many many men can’t see the open road.” ~ Over The Hills And Far Away
“Rest now within the peace. Take of the fruit, but guard the seed.” ~ Carouselambra
For more of Led Zep’s philosophy, here’s a link to a post I created back in December of 2007, when Led Zep’s brief return provided great relief from the economy’s beginning problems and the release of a list of steroids users:
http://financialphilosopher.typepad.com/thefinancialphilosopher/2007/12/weekend-wisdo-1.html
January 13th, 2010 at 9:58 am
Call me old fashioned but I always preferred to skim off the cream.
January 13th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
I feel like for too long Wall Street has been treated like the Houses of the Holy. How many more times is the market going to be a heartbreaker before all of these folks spending so much time betting their money on other’s people’s work realize it’s time to ramble on to somethin’ else. Investors need to take their money and their brainpower and bring it on home to their own communities where they can actually watch the possitive effect it can have, rather than getting stuck in an “I can’t quit you baby” mentality, building their hopes so high on too good to be true investments and inflating the market with hopes and dreams alone.
What is and what should never be is that so many good minds are wasting so much time gambling on how the market is going to move, but are never actually putting any effort into making it get better. The communication breakdown between the market and reality is obvious to any poor Tom living outside of the bubble of the Wall Street illusion, and I think that deep down this same fear is also wearing and tearing on those who are stuck in it. But the market treads on fearlessly, because even if the veterans lose faith and say “babe, I’m gonna leave you”, there are lines of new sailors waiting down by the seaside for a chance to get on Ahab’s ship and sail the ocean in search of Moby Dick. The song remains the same as long as people keep on singing it, but when you’re working on a market that’s designed to be a perpetual motion machine, you know your time is gonna come that you have to admit there’s something wrong. It’s all a fairy tail that that’s the way it has to be though, and if we humans are creative enough to create something this elaborate, I know we can come up with something even better, that’s also simpler.
I think that for 99% of the population, it will be a celebration day when the levee breaks. I just hope for all of the fat bankers who have been collecting more money than they can possibly spend, thus slowing the velocity of money into a recession pace, that they’ll realize “it’s nobody’s fault but mine” in time, or at least have some friends who will take them in when the crowds start chanting for them to be taken to the gallows pole. Otherwise, those who aren’t trampled under foot will be out on the tiles with no quarter, lucky just to be eating a hot dog and serving tea for one. You can only keep people dazed and confused for so long with the promise of a stairway to heaven built on cutting labors costs by singing the immigrant song.
Hats off to Bernie McSherry for inspiring this concept, and thank you to The Big Picture for actually posting comments, and for all the great reporting.
January 13th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
@Dave Eger Says:
What is and what should never be is that so many good minds are wasting so much time gambling on how the market is going to move, but are never actually putting any effort into making it get better. The communication breakdown between the market and reality is obvious to any poor Tom living outside of the bubble of the Wall Street illusion, and I think that deep down this same fear is also wearing and tearing on those who are stuck in it. But the market treads on fearlessly, because even if the veterans lose faith and say “babe, I’m gonna leave you”, there are lines of new sailors waiting down by the seaside for a chance to get on Ahab’s ship and sail the ocean in search of Moby Dick. The song remains the same as long as people keep on singing it, but when you’re working on a market that’s designed to be a perpetual motion machine, you know your time is gonna come that you have to admit there’s something wrong. It’s all a fairy tail that that’s the way it has to be though, and if we humans are creative enough to create something this elaborate, I know we can come up with something even better, that’s also simpler.
————–
Hate to let a post that’s interesting go to fallow ground.
Your post was a good read on many levels..