Ron Isana, a senior analyst for CNBC who refers to himself as “a taller version of Danny DeVito,” spoke to students Monday afternoon in Crum Auditorium. Isana was the featured speaker of the Wiliam O’Neil guest lecture, which was followed by a reception during which he answered questions.
Isana was introduced as a “captivating speaker” by Meadows Dean Jose Bowen. The audience was composed mostly of journalism students.
Isana was first a music major at Loyola Marymount in California before transferring to Cal State Northridge. After he graduated from college, he worked at a vitamin shop. He never planned on working in television and didn’t take an economics or business class until his second year on the air. But when a friend from college offered him a job as a production assistant, eventually giving Isana his job as a producer, he couldn’t refuse. Both on-air reporters called in sick one day and Isana was forced to go on camera. Now, he looks back on his career and laughs, saying, “I just got lucky.”
The main focus of Isana’s speech was about the ability to use the financial markets, which he called a “collective wisdom of informed investors” to predict the future of the events politically and financially in the United States six, nine and even 12 months down the road. He spoke of Art Cashin’s days on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange specifically on the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. On Nov. 22, 1963, Cashin knew there would be bad news after the stock market dropped. Isana is interested in the behavior of the market and how it seemed to move before the news about Kennedy was out to the general public.
When asked by a student audience member how the market works to predict the outcome of presidential elections, Isana said that “usually you can only begin to tell during the first quarter of the month, around January or February, and if the market is up the incumbent usually wins and if down it works just the opposite.”
Isana said that the most interesting stock market forecast was the Internet boom. He said the stock market has a way of getting ahead of reality. He thinks it is important to pay attention to the market because as Isana says, “it gives you a leg up on the people who are not paying attention to the same indicators.”
Many companies are now focusing on the “youth pool” to get new ideas, but Isana said that he doesn’t fully understand new phenomena like YouTube because of the generation gap.
Isana says that the Cox School of Business is a great asset to students, and students should be using it to their advantage along with watching the trends and gaining experience for an “edge in the market”.
