All of us who work as research analysts or stockbrokers have made recommendations we would rather not talk about. They come up in conversation at the worst moments, usually when you are sitting in an office in Mayfair explaining to a multimillionaire hedge fund manager exactly where he has got it all wrong. You annoy your host by pushing things too far or appearing a mite too self-satisfied, and he interrupts your stream of thought and inquires, languidly as a viper: “What about your Buy on Amalgamated Widgets?”
干我们这一行的人——研究分析师或者股票经纪人——都提出过我们自己再也不愿提起的建议。在最糟糕的时刻,它们在谈话中冒了出来。这个时候,你通常是坐在梅费尔区(Mayfair)的某个办公室里,向一位拥有几百万身家的对冲基金经理解释,他的投资究竟哪里出了错。你把话题扯得太远,或者表现得有点自满,惹恼了他,于是他打断你的思路,像毒蛇一样阴森森地问道:“关于你推荐买入Amalgamated Widgets的事呢?”