What you need to know on Wall Street today
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How to conquer Wall Street
In order to become the best, you have to learn from the best.
That's the mantra Dennis Lynch has followed during his ascent to the pinnacle of stock picking - one that finds him as lead manager of multiple funds that have been among the top-ranked on Wall Street for years.
As head of growth investing at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, where he runs six funds and directly oversees $27 billion, Lynch's success can be attributed to many things - his unique management style, his research capabilities, and an epiphany he had more than a decade ago.
But there are also several developmental choices Lynch made along the way that he thinks can help young, aspiring money managers follow in his footsteps. Here are Lynch's top four pieces of advice for conquering Wall Street, in his own words.
Equity trading merry-go-round
Bank of America Merrill Lynch has poached a top trader from JPMorgan Chase, the latest in an ongoing war for top equities traders.
David Kim, the US head of flow trading at JPMorgan, has left the bank after nearly six years and will be taking on a similar role at Bank of America as a senior flow trader, according to people familiar with the matter.
Competition for star traders has been fierce this year amid a rebound in volatility that has revived banks' stock-trading businesses, with some reporting record revenue in the first quarter.
Killer acquisitions
Big pharmaceutical companies may have developed a strategy to block out competition to their prescription drugs.
A recent study by researchers at the Yale School of Management and London Business School noted a trend of mergers and acquisitions made by big pharma to strategically eliminate competitors. The researchers dubbed these deals "killer acquisitions."
TD Ameritrade becoming one-stop shop for investors
For years, TDAmeritrade has been focused on one thing: selling stocks and bonds to retail investors.
But as financial firms large and small race to build the ultimate money management platform, the retail brokerage is responding, launching a dashboard to help clients see their entire financial life in one place. Not only can clients view their TD Ameritrade investments, but also outside savings and checking accounts, retirement plans, and more.
The new dashboard, part of a new "Personalized Portfolios" offering, looks a lot like other aggregation products launched by a slew of financial firms in recent years, and follows in the footsteps of Wall Street's biggest banks.
Buffett hot on Uber
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said he would fulfill a career-long ambition in securing investment from Warren Buffett - but the deal is not top of his priority list right now.
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway came close to taking a $3 billion (£2.2 billion) stake in Uber, but deal the fell apart because of disagreements over the size and terms of the potential investment.
Soon after the news broke, Khosrowshahi and Buffett confirmed that the talks did take place. The Uber CEO told CNBC that "we did have discussions" and, although not all the details of the Bloomberg report were accurate, the deal was a very tempting prospect.
Meeker on tech
Each year, the legendary internet stock analyst turned investor Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers puts together a presentation on the state of the web.
The report, now in its 23rd year, compiles and crunches data from a wide range of sources to provide insights into the biggest trends in digital.
While last year's presentation focused on interactive games and online advertising, this year's delves into data and personalization, e-commerce innovation, and China's rising intensity and leadership in internet-related markets.
We have published the report here in full.
In markets news
- A $1.8 trillion investing behemoth explains why the next recession will be an entirely different beast - and outlines what traders can do to prepare
- 2 UBS analysts just made a big market call that should have everyone a little worried