A Thank You to Our Readers

Several Wall Street Conferences are on our schedule this week.  Which means of course, we will be the recipients of a time honored wall street tradition, the conference satchel tchotchke.

tchotchke-A small, decorative item or souvenir, usually of no particular value.

These free goodies, which are typically emblazoned with the logo of the sponsoring investment bank, do in fact sport retail values equal to approximately 4.50 copies of Barron’s, and are highly coveted by the big money crowd.  Portfolio managers and analysts often squeal with delight upon being presented with tchotchke’s at the registration table. Unseemly behavior no doubt, but all too common. It would seem overpaid, egotistical wall streeters love freebie’s more than main streeters.

The bags, which are theoretically used to tote annual reports and sell-side research, are usually emptied quickly of such useless garbage and surreptitiously filled with the candy and soda that are given away gratis to money managers in attendance. The contraband is then carted off the premises and consumed.

Based on this behavior we would guess that over 50% of buysiders have prior convictions for shoplifting.

Since we will likely be on the receiving end of such sell-side largesse, we thought we would take the opportunity to cull our closets of detritus and enrich a lucky reader at the same time.

And thus the first UTC Tchotchke Sweepstakes, which hopefully will turn out better than the sweepstakes run by Reader’s Digest (RDA-NYSE) some years back.

The first person to email us the answer to the following question wins a 2003 Piper Jaffray Technology Conference “Guides for the Journey” mini-duffel.  Shipping included.

Be sure to tune in next month as we plan to give away a Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet!

What book, published in the late 1980’s, firmly cemented the catch phrases “Big Swinging Dick”, “the Human Piranha” and “Equities in Dallas” in the lexicon of Wall Street.

The first correct response wins the satchel.

Candy and soda not included.

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