Anonymous blogs-the best way for industry professionals to share knowledge.

During my 2 month summer internship in the Singapore branch of a UK based investment bank, I tried my best to keep myself updated-besides 'on the job updation' of course! Word documents got filled with the notes I had made during my reading, work, leisure etc. But however much I tried, the process of converting rough outlines to blog posts was much harder than it seemed. Putting pen to paper is much easier than putting finger to keyboard! And the reasons are not far to seek. When a person is in the academic domain, he may not have the information explosion of the busy trader/structurer/research person but he has the benefits of

1. No compliance limitations on what to write(eg-not on companies under live deals) and when to write(not during blackout periods etc)
2. Lesser egg shells to tread on warily. When a professional writes(specially someone in industry compared to Big4) more so on controversial issues in variance with his employer's line, it does create awkwardness for everyone concerned. 
3. No fear of divulging trade secrets-practioners must strike that fine balance between revealing enough to establish their reputation/evoke reader interest, but not so much as to lose competitive advantage.

Navigating these 3 limitations takes more time than it seems, For example, during my internship I had strong views on certain structured products. But voicing them openly on a public forum(a blog IS a public forum) would not have been the best thing, and would have been probably prohibited by some fine print nested away in that contract. Hence, those views will probably not see the light of day for quite some time.

An anonymous blog may still divulge 'trade secrets', but in the small world of finance, innovations rapidly spread through clients/pitch book forwarding/grapewine/new hires etc. So the risk of this is lower. An example of an anonymous blog is one on M&A/markets/finance in general(epicureandealmaker.blogspot.com/). It is quite widely followed. 


The benefits of these blogs are that once the professional is willing to 'come out', he may be deluged with book deals, consulting requests or merely popularity. And for blogs with active commentators(unlike this one!), the author can also learn and refine his thinking. That is why even Seeking Alpha permits this.