louis rukeyser

Louis Richard "Lou" Rukeyser (January 30, 1933 – May 2, 2006) was an American financial journalist, columnist, and commentator, through print, radio, and television. He was best known for his role as host of two television series, Wall $treet Week with Louis Rukeyser, and Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street. He also published two financial newsletters, Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street and Louis Rukeyser's Mutual Funds. Named by People as the only sex symbol of the dismal science of economics, Rukeyser won numerous awards and honors over his lifetime. Rukeyser was famous for his pun-filled humor, and for trying to get investors to ignore the short term gyrations and think long term. In answering a letter on investing in a hairpiece manufacturer, he quipped that "if your money seems to be hair today and gone tomorrow, we'll try to make it grow back by giving the bald facts on how to get your investments toupee

[edit] Controversy - The Rukeyser Effect Over the years, stock traders and analysts noted that a company touted on W$W on Friday would experience a spike (rapid short term advance) in its stock price the following Monday. This phenomenon, dubbed "The Rukeyser Effect," was described as a further demonstration of the program's influence. However, in 1987, Professor Robert Pari of Bentley College published an academic article in the Journal of Portfolio Management detailing the results of a study that found that stocks recommended by Rukeyser's guests on Wall $treet Week not only tended to rise in price and trading volume in the days preceding the Friday evening broadcast, peaking on the Monday afterward, but also tended to under perform the market for up to a year following the recommendation.[9] Rukeyser strongly disputed this claim, but ten years later Professors Jess Beltz and Robert Jennings published another academic article in the Review of Financial Economics reporting results consistent with Pari's original findings, and that there was "little correlation between the 6-month performance of a recommendation and the abnormal volume at the date the recommendation is made." They observed that there were differences in return performance between the recommendations of different individuals, but the market could not discern the more insightful recommendations from the less insightful.[10] Another commentator noted "It is mathematically impossible for the thirty million viewers of this show to beat the market, since they are the market."[11]

[edit] Awards and achievements He received the George Washington Honor Medal of the Freedoms Foundation (presented to his popular radio commentary program, Rukeyser's World, which he ended when he left ABC in 1973) for "an outstanding accomplishment in helping to achieve a better understanding of America and Americans."[13] Mr. Rukeyser won a second Freedoms Foundation award in 1978 for his newspaper column, begun just two years earlier. He was granted the first ever GW Loeb award for financial journalism given to a broadcaster.[13] In 1990 he became the first man to receive the Women's Economic Round Table award "for outstanding service in educating the public about business, financial and economic policy."[13] In 2000 he received the Financial Planning Association of New York's Malcolm S. Forbes Award for Excellence in Advancing Financial Understanding.[13] He received nine honorary doctorates for his work as the nation's No. 1 economic educator: from Johns Hopkins University, American University, Loyola College, Western Maryland College, Mercy College, Moravian College, Southeastern Massachusetts University, New Hampshire College and Roger Williams University.[13] The Fashion Foundation of America named him both the best-dressed man in finance and the most sartorially elegant host in America.[6] Playboy, acclaiming him in its own best-dressed list, said he was a "rakish raconteur" and a "personal-style knockout."[13]