London Stock Exchange (1987-1992)

Within months of graduating from Trinity Eoin commenced work with stock brokers Panmure Gordon in London as Banks and Financials analyst, commencing work just 2 weeks before the Stock Market crash of September 1987. Subsequently he became a fund manager at Legal & General Investments. He set about re-skilling himself for his new career by taking the London Stock Exchange Securities Institute Diploma in the Distinction Grade, coming second highest in the UK in one of the modules. He also took the Stock Exchange Registered Representative exam.

At Legal & General he became a successful fund manager and rose rapidly to management grade with responsibility for managing funds in excess of £130 million. A key to his success was a software system he developed that tracked company announcements, bids and offers of share blocks, share prices (within buying and selling bands), changes in Analysts recommendations and company directors purchases/sales of shares. The composite picture of these different information sources gave him an advantage in his area of specialisation, investing in Small & Medium Companies where research wasn’t as good as for the FTSE 100 companies. At Legals he organised a business houses softball league for his colleagues in Hyde Park.

He regularly wrote articles on investment related matters and compiled a Mergers & Acquisitions guide for his department. The publication of one of his articles in the Investor’s Chronicle was to cost him his job in 1992. The early 90's were an anxious time for investors with a number of spectacular bankruptcies amongst quoted companies. Anxious to help small private investors protect their investments he wrote a tongue in cheek article highlighting to small investors the tell tale signs that it is time to get out of a particular company's shares. It was agreed with the publication that the article would be published anonymously however, due to an error in the production process at the Investor's Chronicle, the article was published with his employer's name credited on the article.

After a short period of suspension he was given his notice 10 days later. Given that the error had not been his fault he felt that he had been unfairly treated and he filed an unfair dismissals claim and won an out of court settlement. He entered the RTE PJ O'Connor Radio Drama Awards with a piece based on his experiences from this period.

Because it coincided with a number of similar incidents that year (such as the sacking of top city analyst Terry Smith for publishing the book "Accounting for Growth" ) it attracted a lot of publicity in the UK and the national and local Irish media.

Eoin continues to be a member to this day of the London Stock Exchange professional members body, the Securities & Investments Institute.