Dad, you would find today’s Wall Street hard to believe

Lauren Rudd

Today is Father’s Day, a sad reminder that it has been 19 years since you left us. I know, as I have known in years past, that I can never actually give you this letter.

Yet, the thoughts of how I was the Saturday chalk boy – ripping the latest Dow averages off the teletype machine each half hour and writing them on a blackboard for everyone in the office to see – is still fresh in my mind.

Although both computer technology and sophisticated mathematics have become an integral part of the investment world, many of the principles you taught graduate students using Graham and Dodd’s classic “Security Analysis” text remain relevant, even in today’s complex world of financial engineering.

Giving a sideways glance at my well used and underlined fourth edition, I wonder what you would think of today’s investment world. It is unlikely you would recognize the Street or the economic environment in which it exists that you once knew so well.