BBC Newsman Robert Peston Deserves Award

Fitzjames

Surely Robert Peston the BBC Economics Editor deserves a journalism award......maybe even two.

Last year he broke the Northern Rock story. Today he broke the HBOS story.

That man must have some contacts book. It does however beg the question why the other journos did not get two big stories. What kept them all so quiet. Are they all so untalented?

Presumably since the weekend there must have been rumblings in the City, the Treasury, the Bank of England, on trading floors about Lloyds TSB. Meetings had to be arranged so how come all those TV pundit regulars, the rent a quote "City spokesmen" did not know.

If I understand this ......HBOS shares were worth £10 a year ago and 90pence today. A big loss to a lot of people. But at anytime over the past year those losses could have been mitigated by people getting in and getting out at the right time.
Id love to see the paper trails over the last few days......not to mention cell phone records. Luckily the City of London traders are very ethical.

Wibble

He broke the story on the day the sale was announced?

Give that man the Purlitzer.

Although more amusingly I saw a UK business web site telling their readers to buy these shares yesterday with a $375p target price in the future because they believed the liquidity concerns were overstated.

JazzG

Yeah the media deserve an award here, the way they worked up hysteria over the Northern Rock crisis meaning even though they were in trouble it was probably just about manageable. The media on the other hand did a great job at making savers and Northern Rock users panic thus fucking them up even more and in the end meant they had to be taken over by the Government.

WeasteDevil

He's actually a poor journalist though, so no award from me.

spinoza

You think they'd let on information that might make them money?
HBOS was taken out at 232p, which was a surprise, so if you're alleging insider dealing based on price movements, you (a) don't have enough information (b) are unlikely to be correct even based on the information you do have and (c) don't have a clue what you're talking about.

Fitzjames

Yes it was a big scoop. He just got a telephone call from Number 10 (according to todays Independent).
He obviously has more ethics than me.
The shares were around 90p and he went on air right away.
Id have phoned Mrs Fitzjames to BUY BUY BUY at 90p .
Deep down I have the ethics of a trader.

Fitzjames

Are you suggesting that those immaculately presented guys and girls who are always available might actually withhold information on the basis that they might make money if they withheld it. Thats unethical.
That’s almost like saying they worked for the Daily Mirror.
Ive never heard anything so ridiculous that PROFESSIONAL ETHICAL JOURNOS on City pages in our great newspapers hype shares or talk down shares to make a few quid for themselves. There should be a law agin it.
Im NOT suggesting anything at all and indeed will happily admit that I know nothing of which I speak. Nor do I want to know anything.
But it appears to me that when somebody LOSES money……someone else might conceivably have made a few quid along the way.
Even to cushion the blow of redundancy.
Hedge Fund Managers whose enormous bonus payments attract the attention of our newspapers to day and who seem to be carrying the can (a highly expensive designer brand can I suppose). Quite possibly a few others in and around the Trading Floor knew what was going on.
Or did nobody have a clue?

spinoza

How's that unethical? They're being paid for commentary, not investment ideas.

No need, journos don't move stocks anymore. They can't, they're not listened to by the people who deploy large chunks of capital. 10, even 8 years ago, maybe. Now, very unlikely.
In the first place, there are many trading floors, and there are many places where you can buy or sell securities. The public markets probably account for about half of actual executed trades.

So when you say some people knew what was going on - yes, some people had an inkling. Did they make money - yes, probably. Would it have been right for them to tell people about it? No, why should they? Were they trading in public markets? Probably not. Did any of them work at Lehman? I doubt it.

Before you start, the definition of illegal insider trading is very specific with regards to the way the information is acquired. Anything else is legal, and ethical.

But since you don't actually want to know anything, I suspect you'll ignore this post and continue to spout rubbish.

spinoza

If they had bought at 90p they would have made a 158% return by selling to Lloyds

Fitzjames

Now you cant blame me if I take a little pleasure in seeing Capitalism implode.even if its only for a few days.
And nobodys gonna lose out not even the City traders who lose their jobs...I see they might be retrained as teachers. They probably see it like a Viet Cong re-education centre but I look forward to seeing ex-traders being converted to the joys of working for the public sector.
Not sure how they will be able to pay their dealers for the strange white powder many of them seem to use. Maybe Im watching the wrong movies.

Interesting article in todays Guardian (what else?) where a survey reveals that looking at 26 successful american traders.......high levels of depression anxiety sleeplessness and an over dependence on alcohol and cocaine.
"For relaxation they chose solitary pursuits...jogging, masturbation and fishing were common" (todays Guardian)

spinoza

I know a fair few City people who went into teaching, after the last cycle. One of my colleagues just left to train as a vicar. "Traders", as you put it (you actually mean front office capital markets staff, "trader" has a specific meaning), aren't too different from any random segment of British society. More cosmopolitan, maybe.


It's from the school of the bleeding obvious anyway. Every trader (people who buy and sell securities) I know has depression, anxiety, sleeplessness and an overdependence on some sort of mood-altering substance. It's cured come pay day. When it doesn't, it's time to move on.

Fitzjames

Watching heir portfolis shrink could cure it. Im just enjoying the fact that their pay days are running out.

spinoza

It won't for the good ones. That's the silliness of the schadenfreude.

You can rail and rant at some monolithic entity of "City people" who behave in ways you don't like, but it doesn't really exist.

Wibble

Indeed. It was the bit about buying because the liquidity concerns were overstated that amused me.

Fitzjames

I hope Nick Leeson gets a job on BBC.
He looks like a man I could trust.
Can we maybe organise a petition to have him pardoned?