This is how rumors start on Wall Street

YouTube / Jim Reid

Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid had one the most-viewed profiles on the Bloomberg terminal early this week.

In the finance community, that's a position usually reserved for people in the news because they're changing jobs, leaving a firm, or getting promoted. Their colleagues, or former colleagues, are checking out their profile to find out what's going on. 

So having his name at the top of the rankings set off the rumor mill, not least because Deutsche Bank cut staff on Monday. But the reason for his being up there wasn't quite as dramatic as friends and colleagues imagined.

In his note this morning, Reid said a number of people had asked if everything was OK, which we'll take as code for 'Do you still have a job?'

He does, which is great, because his early morning notes are among the most entertaining on Wall Street. 

His explanation of the events, copied below, showcases how easily rumors can be triggered in an environment where people are leaving their employers all the time. It also led to us finding the clip of him playing the piano. 

Here is Reid:

I had a suspiciously high number of people ask yesterday if everything was ok with me. After saying all was good I eventually asked why there was so much concern. Apparently on a one week basis I'm the most clicked on person on Bloomberg globally (see the MVP function) beating people who are in deep trouble regulatory wise, have been relieved of their duties, are leaders of various countries or of big institutions, or are Boris Johnson or Donald Trump. A strange crew to be at the top of. I now know it's all because last week I mentioned there was a new piano clip available that I posted on my Bloomberg header. Fascinatingly Bloomberg says around 1900 have clicked on me, however YouTube say 'only' 308 have clicked on the video. That's some leakage. However at least a few hundred have been taken off this count from when I first looked and when I investigated why the small print said that YouTube reserve the right to disqualify hits if they feel that they are done by robots! So maybe I'm mostly read by algorithms these days! Anyway thanks for all your concern but rest assured that the only issue I really have at the moment is working out how to erect the new IKEA sofa that arrived yesterday in numerous boxes! It looks scary!

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