Absolutely support this. Far too much attention is paid to quarterly returns rather than business strategy, with very short term views of profitability. I have

Absolutely support this. Far too much attention is paid to quarterly returns rather than business strategy, with very short term views of profitability. I have some great war stories about this type of thinking. One of the best is Merrill Lynch firing almost their entire Bond trading desk because the market was quiet for a couple of months and the desk made a small loss. They did this just as the bond market turned and in rival companies the Bond desks went rapidly to rabid money making machines. Merrill Lynch had to scrabble to hire the people they just fired at vastly greater cost. This was literally a matter of weeks after firing them. This type of thinking is one of the main reasons Merrill Lynch does not exist any more as an independent entity. When you reward your traders and managers on short term results, you encourage short term risk taking. What do they care if the position they have taken will potentially blow up in 3 years time if there is a fundamental shift in conditions? All that matters is their current last few quarters make them look like heroes and they are going to get a fat bonus...