Robert Passarella
Robert Passarella has spent over 18-years on Wall Street in the gray zone between business and technology. Rob has always focused on leveraging technology and innovative information sources to empower Equity Research and serve clients. A veteran of Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, and Bear Stearns; he has seen the transformational challenges first hand, up close, and personal.
Always intrigued by the consumption and use of information for investment analysis, Rob is passionate about leveraging alternative data and news provided by the Internet for investment analysis. Robert holds a BBA in Finance from Baruch College and an MBA from the Columbia Business School.
Brokers and Research and Trading — Oh My!
The best part about being a conference chair for Money:Tech is the opportunity to see what's happening on the front lines of the FinTech and Securities businesses. No surprises here: turnover and layoffs are out there, but I also see new opportunities and a thrust towards being smart, thrifty, and creative. More on that in a minute — first…
WSJ's End of Wall Street: Don't Order The Tombstone Just Yet
It's nice to be back after the holidays. I just watched a series of short videos from the Wall Street Journal's Digital Network. The series is called the "End of Wall Street". It is a short oral history of the past year since the demise of Bear Stearns and the current crisis. It ends with a part called "What Happens…
Rolling Your Own Newsroom
Financial professionals by their very nature are news junkies. I've always enjoyed building my own quick tools to parse information and share it with my co-workers, friends, and family. When I was at Bear Stearns I built a few subject-related iGoogle tabs and shared them with clients or co-workers. I looked at these tools as the poor man's version of…
Unintended Consequences of Nationalizing Banks
This is not a post for or against the actions of the Treasury. This is a quick look at what may be on the horizon–so that we can all keep our collective eyes open. I invite you to add your own observations and questions in the comments. I'd like to start you off with a couple. Now that the US…
Games & Markets: Rules Matter
As children (or even now as adults) most of us enjoyed games, whether they are sports, video games, board games, whatever. The defining quality in any of these pastimes is the ability to win in direct competition with others. What makes these games enjoyable is that once the rules are learned or agreed to by participants, skill should become evident…
MONEY:TECH 2009 Up and Running
I am happy to announce that the Money:Tech site is up and running. We've been working on the program for a while. We are looking for people in both the Finance and Technology communities to participate, as attendees and presenters. The last Money:Tech was a success and the next one promises even more. Money:Tech 2009, will take place February…
Tools for the Equity Research Toolbox
When I was a kid, I would always remember commercials for a school called Apex Tech. One of their taglines was "look over the professional tools you get to keep when you finish your training". It's a lot like that today. Google News, along with Yahoo! Pipes are two tools that analysts, traders, and salespeople are discovering and using. Today…
Data on the Web: VGChartz vs. NPD
After writing my first post, Equity Research in the Age of Web 2.0, I received a lot of comments asking really good questions. Most of the questions from readers asked about real world examples. So here's a taste. In the world of securities research, in general, we talk about consensus sources. These are sources that everyone looks to as an…
Equity Research in the Age of Web 2.0
After spending many years on Wall Street watching the buy side (investing institutions) and working with the sell side (investment banks); all I can say is that I am excited with what the future holds. The Internet is quickly becoming 'the' vast store house of data, research and commentary that I hoped it would. If you think the Internet is for message board jockeys, blogs for late nights in pajamas, and social media for dating; you are missing point. If you want to add to your company and industry analysis, as well as, your investment process, you need to be an interactive user of the Internet.