A Salute to a True Wall Street All-Star, Barton Biggs

0 Flares Twitter 0 Facebook 0 0 Flares ×

Normally, I would be discussing my thoughts on the market day just passed and the one yet to play out. However, today I will depart from that normal routine and mention the passing of a true Wall Street legend and one of its original all-stars, Barton Biggs. Most recently Biggs (his last name described him to a “T”) was the managing partner at Traxis Partners, a hedge fund that he founded when retiring from Morgan Stanley. I was cutting my teeth in this business in the early 1980s at Morgan Stanley (MS), when it was still a privately held partnership and Biggs was the Chief Global Market Strategist at the brokerage house which was spun out of the old House of Morgan. I was lucky enough to be part of the team that had its first boots on the ground in Japan when Morgan Stanley was one of the first non-Japanese brokers to gain admittance to membership on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and then later on when we opened up a Hong Kong operation. Barton Biggs was the international face of Morgan Stanley and a key figure in that company’s rise to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s.

Back in those days, only two Wall Street trailblazers consistently thought outside of the USA, Sir John Templeton and Barton Biggs. For me, there were two musts to begin any day in the 1980s. One was to listen to the musing of Larry Wachtel (another legend who we lost in 2007) on WINS radio. Of course that was before the days of Bloomberg Radio and TV and CNBC. Larry Wachtel, was the first to actively use the terms “generals, troops and cavalry” to describe the market action of stocks. Biggs was the other must read. He was able to convey his thoughts in such an eloquent, astute and entertaining manner that you almost did not realize that you were reading a piece of sell-side research. While I met Biggs at a few soirées over my six year stint at Morgan Stanley, I was never fortunate to meet with him on the job. However, that did not stop me from following him from afar once I left Morgan Stanley. Biggs was one of the few people for whom I would stop working when I saw him appear on CNBC or Bloomberg. He was also the author of the best selling non-fiction book, Hedgehogging

Rest in peace Barton Biggs. You have left your mark as one of the true greats in the history of Wall Street.

0 Flares Twitter 0 Facebook 0 0 Flares ×

Bio
Latest Posts

Scott Rothbort

Scott Rothbort has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. He is the Founder and President of LakeView Asset Management, LLC, www.lakeviewasset.com a Registered Investment Advisor specializing in customized separate account management for high net worth individuals. In addition, he is the founder of TheFinanceProfessor.com www.thefinanceprofessor.com an educational social networking site where his blog also resides; and, publisher of The LakeView Restaurant & Food Chain Report www.restaurantstox.com , a newsletter focusing on investment and trading ideas in the food, restaurant and agricultural sectors. Mr. Rothbort is also a Term Professor of Finance at Seton Hall University’s Stillman School of Business, where he teaches courses in finance and economics; is the Chief Market Strategist for The Stillman School of Business; and, the co-supervisor of the Center for Securities Trading and Analysis. Feel free to reach out to Scott Rothbort by email at [email protected]