An oft-cited grievance of many a sell-side equity research analyst is that boring numerical analysis of mundane data and events, known as maintenance research in the trade, stifles creativity.
But a stifling of analysts’ creativity might not be such a bad thing if the poems of Dresdner Kleinwort’s UK banks analyst, James Eden, are anything to go by.
The following versification, which introduced his earnings update on mortgage lender Northern Rock, published in August, helps to explain why.
Squeal squeal squeal with delight,
Northern Rock shows us its might,
Bears must have got quite a fright,
Shares up 8% what a sight.
Bears tried to claim bad debts would bite,
But Bob Bennett said that wasn’t right,
It seems that some now see the light,
Squeal squeal squeal with delight.
Although Eden’s doggerel does give a succinct and memorable summary of the more conventionally expressed analysis to come – perhaps appreciated by busy fund managers with little time to read numerous lengthy and dull research reports – the dogmatic adherence to such a simplistic rhyme scheme does not make for good poetry.
The inclusion of verse in equity research does, however, seem consistent with Dresdner Kleinwort’s new “Unexpected viewpoints.