First Team

Michael Goldstein

Empirical

Second Team

François Trahan, ISI

Third Team

Tobias Levkovich, Citi

Runners-Up

Richard Bernstein, Merrill Lynch; Vadim Zlotnikov, Sanford C. Bernstein

Michael Goldstein of Empirical Research Partners vaults from third to first, reclaiming the top spot he last held in 2001. (He also finishes first in Quantitative Research) “Goldstein is particularly strong at describing the implications of whatever market regime he believes we are in,” says one portfolio manager. In his December “Portfolio Strategy” report, Goldstein,52, predicted that “2007 could prove to be the payback year for the excesses of the ten-year up-cycle in housing,” and he followed up in August by describing the U.S. economy as having taken “not a knockout punch but a hard right cross” from the subprime crisis. He told investors that the time was right for the growth investing style. François Trahan, who joined International Strategy & Investment Group from Bear Stearns in February, slips to second but continues to impress money managers with his “ability to tie macro drivers to sector and market themes” and “filter out noise.” Trahan told investors to ignore the sound and fury when China’s capital markets plunged in late February, sparking a sell-off in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, because he believed the turmoil would be short-lived; the markets began to rebound six weeks later. Trahan remains bullish on U.S. equities: “I still like this market,” he says. Rising from runner-up to third, Citi’s Tobias Levkovich “provides big-picture thinking and good individual stock ideas,” says one buy-sider. In January, Levkovich recommended Caterpillar, the Peoria, Illinois–based manufacturer of farm machinery, on rising demand. The stock surged 21.2 percent through mid-September, while the broad market was up just 4.8 percent.