A Test Of Your Wall Street Obsession & Knowledge

Photo Courtesy: Tanita Jha

How many of these can you recognize? 

Charlie Munger

Nuriel Roubini

Tulip Mania

Philip Fisher

Long Term Capital Management

Randall Lane

Meredith Whitney

Lehman Brothers

Bloomberg Terminal

Reverse Split

Charles Schwab

Morningstar

Mark Hulbert

Michael O Higgins    

QQQ

Rick Santelli

Nineteen Twenty Nine

Moodys

ADR

Bill Gross

Now can you match them with the descriptions below:

1.The one whose tv outburst led to the Tea Party Movement.   2. Credit rating company which rates credit instruments like bonds and cdos.  3. Enables you to invest in stocks of foreign companies. 4. Ticker for Nasdaq 100 ETF. 5.  Oppenheimer analyst first to let the world know banks like Citi were undercapitalized . Currently predicting a wave of muni bond defaults. 6. The New York Stern School of Business Professor also known as Dr. Doom.  7.  Historically famous bubble.  8.  Been tracking the performance of Investment Advisory Letters since 1980. 9.  Played Blackjack professionally in Las Vegas and applies gambling methods learned there to calculate the risks and odds on his investments. (bet I got you on this one ) 10. The other face you can expect at the Omaha, Nebraska AGMs. 11. Company whose history includes being part of American Express, obviously not too big to …... 12. Author of Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, father of one of the Forbes 400 Richest Americans. 13. How a $1 stock can become a $10 stock without the market's help, example - Revlon. 4. What separates the hobby trader from the professional  trader. 15. Shone a light on the Maybachs, Gulfstreams, Peter Max portraits and other trader toys of the zeroes (2000-2010). 16. Company which issues star ratings on mutual funds.  17. The year that gave rise to the New Deal and other Keynesian programs irksome to the GOP. 18. The trading company that was brought down by Russia’s devaluation of the rouble in 1998 and moratorium on its treasury debt.    19.  The dyslexic billionaire who prefers to listen to books on tape rather than read them. His company might be managing your 401K or IRAs. 20. The Venezuelan-born author behind the Dogs of the Dow theory.

Your Score and Interpretation:   

0 – Your heart is in the right place, but maybe you should worry a teensy bit about your money. 

1-5: You are on your way – you will soon be organizing your day around Fast Money and other programs on CNBC

5-10:  Booyah!

10-15:  You belong in Cramerica.

16-19: You probably did a Google search on the tricky ones -I'm guessing the Blackjack,Dyslexia and Peter Max ones. Sneaky, but clever!
20:  Show-off!

20(Alternative interpretation): Is your name Ken Jennings or IBM Watson? Fess up.

P.S.  True Confession:  I was a goner for stuff like this for the longest while. When it comes to investing, the challenge is to be able to absorb new information without being overtaken by the urge to act on it.  I was cured of this latter tendency when I discovered Yoga for Investors.  Want to learn more about Yoga for Investors? I have covered it in a previous post. You can link to the post here.