In Focus

When Abby Speaks, People Listen

My original reason for doing an article on Abby Joseph Cohen, the lead market strategist at Goldman Sachs, was that I thought she had a great name. Strong, yet female. Every time I see her in a television interview I fantasize about having a name like Abby Joseph Cohen. Let's see... Karin Locke Housley. Nope, just doesn't cut it. She isn't the typical Wall Street analyst. She is so calm, cool, and chicky. The men are flipping their arms about wildly whenever they speak of the market, and here is this woman, so well-spoken without being condescending, calmly telling us it will be all right. She tells us to relax, all is well with the economy, and there is no need for panic. Who is this Chick? I had to do some digging.

OHMYGAWD. I had no idea. Check out the scoop:

Cohen's opinions on America's latest national obsession - the stock market - now carry more weight than anyone's, with the exception, perhaps, of Warren Buffett's.
- Business Week

''A year ago, when Abby was inducted into our Hall of Fame, I said she was the most influential woman on Wall Street. But now I would say that she is the most influential market forecaster, period.''
- Louis Rukeyser, host of Wall Street Week With Louis Rukeyser

Stocks recovered around midday today after Abby Joseph Cohen, Wall Street's most prominent bull, helped soothe Wall Street's concerns about corporate earnings.
- Forbes

I am so jealous. Great name, great television interview, great job, and now... the most influential forecaster, period. How can I compete?

Here's an example of Abby Joseph Cohen's clout. In August of 1998 some well-known strategist who had been bullish on stocks most of his career, suddenly turned bear (which means he thought the market was going to take a turn from good to bad) on an appearance on CNBC. The market dropped 300 points. The next day, Abby faxed a letter to her people stateside stating that the economy was sound and that because of what this guy just said, the market was undervalued, (Chick Translation: everything was on sale). She continued to profess her belief in the long-term bullish stock market. People listened, and the market bounced right back.

Or how about on Oct. 27, 1997, Black Monday, the day Wall Street panicked due to Hong Kong's unsettled market? I was freakin'. I didn't even turn my T.V. on because I didn't want my husband to see what was going on, 'cause he would do that whole "will we have enough for college tuition for the kids" conversation. Sure enough, the next day, there was that calm, cool and collected Abby Joseph Cohen alerting us to another market sale. She blew off all of the other analysts bear predictions and told us to get our pocketbooks and put our money back into the market. People listened. The market bounced right back... and continued to in the following weeks.

This is Abby's claim to fame. She is the biggest Bull on Wall Street. Now, as a Chick, I am not sure if that's a compliment, but in Abby's case she should stand tall, horns pointed up, like a bull. (Which is why a bull market is called a bull market: the bull's horns point UP, and a bear's paws bat DOWN. Bear market - down.) Abby is a woman with a solid foundation and believes in what she says. She wouldn't say it looked bullish if she didn't think it did. She has kept her bullish outlook on stocks for nine years. How can she do this?

Because she's smart. Every quarter she examines in detail the earnings report of each company in the S & P 500. (And you thought doing the Chicks' Dozen was time consuming for just one company!) Not everyone in "the business" is able to decipher all the different accounting methods, and since there is no standardized accounting practice, you have to know how to look for the dotted "i's" and fully crossed "t's." This gives Abby Joseph Cohen the edge.

Abby graduated from Cornell University with an economics degree. (This, mind you, when Cornell was one of the only Ivy league schools to accept woman.) She married her college sweet-heart and they have two daughters. After Cornell, she went on to George Washington University to get her Masters. She was working as an assistant at the Federal Reserve Board when she got the call up to Baltimore to work for the mutual fund company, T. Rowe Price. She stayed there for seven years. Then she headed over to Drexel Burnham Lambert and stayed there for another seven years.

Shortly after Abby's mother died, she and her family decided to move back to New York to be near her father, her only sister and her extended family. She also landed one of the most prestigious jobs on Wall Street as the Goldman Sachs analyst. She became a partner in the firm 1998. A partner! Did you know that partners are entitled to split the pretax profits? That's like. well, it's millions per analyst. In spite of that heady atmosphere, Abby's feet are still planted firmly on the ground. ''We are not a Wall Street family," Abby Joseph Cohen says. "A Wall Street career is not the end-all and be-all for us. It has worked out wonderfully well to have family close by, even if it's just to have them come over on a Friday night and sit around and chat.'' (Business Week, June 22, 1998)

She is truly a Chick to admire.