How seriously are you taking the deputy president’s request that we citizens should “embrace members of the police service”? His reason for this display of affection is that “it had become a law-abiding establishment”. This is quite a gratifying piece of news, even if, we hope, a trifle superfluous. However, on this basis I am expecting my fair share of hugging too. Although I was away at the beach and the cricket quite a bit this month, the days that I did spend in the office were devoted to great chunks of particularly law-abiding behaviour.
It seems that compliance officers worldwide made a joint New Year resolution to prod us delinquent investors to get our paperwork into order. You know the sort of thing. Copies of IDs and electricity bills and letters of authorisation and so on. All to be shuffled and dealt and filed and stored, ready for inspection. All boxes ticked.
Now, I know my clients, and for most of them, their idea of money laundering is limited to the odd bank note that remained in a shirt pocket through the medium hot wash and spin cycle. But my pleadings that I’d much rather spend the time being a stockbroker than a policemen were blown away by the news about some outfit called Riggs Bank in Washington. These guys, it seems, had a reputation for quality and prestigious clients, but nevertheless have just copped a $16m fine for having some rather shady customers of whom the US government disapproved.
And then my attention was drawn to the story about an analyst at a UK stockbroker who has been slapped with an equally chunky fine – presumably for faulty or misleading research. And here I am, writing away, being disrespectful, flippant, offensive and even worse, listing share names that I like or dislike and not a single line of disclaimer, disclosure or wealth warning in sight. At one research house I am told that a ten line research note might carry up to three pages of fine print, warning anyone foolish enough to read it that the research note was quite possibly useless. Another source tells of a firm where every email, letter and note has to be checked by a lawyer before the “SEND” button can be pressed. Who checks the lawyer, I wonder?
Today is the JSE’s month-end, and statements and portfolios will be prepared this weekend for mailing on Monday. It has been my habit since I arrived at Watermark, to write a small newsletter about the market for inclusion with those statements. I’m starting to wonder if that is wise. Are there any folk out there who are finished with blaming MacDonalds for making them fat or SAB for making them drunk or the mirror for making them ugly? What if my stock calls make them angry, or poor or even rich?
Any ideas I had of being hugged have now vanished. Especially as the market seems to be going down quite sharply this afternoon.
There will be no Tidemarks next week. Not because I’m scared, but because I’ll be in Grahamstown, carting crates and katunda up the stairs of the University residence where my daughter is to spend the year.
James Greener
28th January 2005
