Investment Executives “Search for Alpha” Harvard Business School Club Panel Discusses Innovations in Securities Research
Greenwich, Connecticut—February 9, 2006—A four-person panel of investment research firm CEOs addressed a diverse audience of hedge fund managers, research analysts, high net-worth individuals, and financial press at an event organized by the Harvard Business School Club of Connecticut. The discussion highlighted the current state of independent research and its future.
Michael Mayhew, CEO of Integrity Research, moderated the panel, which included Doug Atkin, President and CEO of Majestic Research; Lisa Shalett, Chairman and CEO of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., a subsidiary of Alliance Capital; and David Teten, CEO, Nitron Advisors.
The panel discussed the varied external forces and their impact on the industry. Mr. Teten said that “the biggest trend impacting the research business is that analytical processing power has been commoditized.” Lisa Shalett, on the other hand, pointed toward sell side research as the fulcrum for change, “What has changed most about the research industry is the valuation of sell side research. The questioning of the value of sell side research is shocking to me, because research really matters; thousands of buyers are voluntarily pulling down our research reports every day.” With increasing number of buyers, numerous research firms have entered the market that create “too much supply of research,” said Michael Mayhew. He stated, however, that “by placing value, we will let the market erase the inefficiencies.”
David Teten added that the competition within the investment research industry makes it “exceedingly hard to gain alpha by looking at the exact same publicly filed financial documents as everyone else. Unless you do something different, you will achieve the same results as everyone else.” Mr. Teten briefed on how his company, Nitron Advisors, uses a variety of resources to give institutional investors an edge on the competition; “In particular, we leverage peoples’ digital trail to identify the ideal industry expert for our clients to consult with about company, market, regulatory, and technical questions surrounding an investment.”
For a more detailed transcript of the Harvard Business School Club of Connecticut event, visit http://snipurl.com/mt20.
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