Citigroup held a take-your-children-to-work-day last week. The programme included a seminar in which the kids could learn about market fundamentals and identify the stocks that they thought offered long-term growth opportunities. Despite much pleading, a list of the stocks chosen was not forthcoming. No doubt, the children did not follow the usual analyst's golden rule of only picking companies that were likely to give some business to the firm, but innocently picked the stocks that they thought would do the best.

Given the drubbing that analysts are currently getting from various regulators, perhaps it should have been the parents taking the seminar.