Testimonial: Ryan’s Notes Metals Conference

Ryan¹s Notes first had the privilege of hearing Barry Ritholtz speak at a New York City industry meeting held in June 2008. The topic of the meeting was: Assessing Metals Market Drivers, and it was the first time we had organized a meeting that was not directly focused on metals commodity markets. The audience consisted of roughly 125 executives from companies that trade, produce and consume metals worldwide. Ritholtz spoke about currency and debt, and the room was electrified. Speakers from UBS, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and Global Insight were remarkably upbeat (given what we know happened a few months later). Ritholtz was entertaining, irreverent and cautious. The audience was hooked.

Ritholtz agreed to again address the metals executives in June 2010 and most recently June 2011. Again, we at Ryan’s Notes felt honored to have Ritholtz as a speaker and our audience was particularly impressed. Most of the delegates are CEOs that are used to hearing canned economic presentations that are dumbed down to a level that is of little use. Ritholtz not only clearly synopsized a lot of information about debt, housing and US monetary policy but he also fielded questions on a variety of topics, even politics and post-recession patterns.

Ritholtz has a huge reserve of information at his fingertips, and he is a terrific communicator. With candor and humor, he makes his points while respecting the intelligence of his audience. He is not afraid to go out on a limb, and he can never be accused of just following the pack.

Ryan¹s Notes understands that we were fortunate to find Ritholtz and even luckier to have him as a speaker on more than one occasion. Now, we are just bracing for general disappointment as all future speakers are measured against Ritholtz.

Alice Agoos, President
Ryan’s Notes