A managing director in charge of debt and equity sales has left Cantor Fitzgerald to join boutique broker-dealer Odeon Capital Group in New York. Herb Lust, a veteran MD who has managed sales, trading and research teams on both the buy-side and sell-side, also has a part-time gig of sorts: disseminating poet-like words of wisdom to his massive following on LinkedIn.
Lust has gained nearly 20k followers on the social network without being a CEO or face of a company. His popularity likely stems in part from his posts, which are equal parts Shakespeare and Milton Friedman. Some recent posts include:
“It is a mistake to equate who you are with your strongest emotion. You are what deliberates between your emotions. Feelings are merely signals. It is up to you to pick which one has most value. Choose wisely!”
“Never conflate memorization with sound judgement. Some of the worst investors know every single number. Simply knowing the facts does not imply, at all, that your conclusion is correct. There are a lot of idiot savants out there. Pattern recognition is more important than data collection. As Montaigne says, ‘Experience is a second intelligence.’”
“Tenacity distinguishes the successful from the ordinary. Tenacity also distinguishes the blithering idiot from the ordinary. Perspicacity without perseverance is empty. Perseverance without perspicacity is blind. You can recognize defeat without being a defeatist. Adaptive people change. Neurotics repeat. The distinction between tenacity and self-delusion is common sense.”
“Good risk management means never having to say you’re sorry.”
Lust’s passion for prose may be due to his rather atypical educational background for a career on Wall Street. While he has his MBA in economics and finance from NYU, he was a philosophy and art history major during his undergraduate years. Lust left Cantor Fitzgerald for Odeon in July. He earlier declined comment on his status at Cantor.
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