Davy appears to be making a play for the wild, wild west. The country's largest stockbroking firm has plucked three of the most senior executives from the Galway office of its main rival, Goodbody, to beef up its private clients division in the region.

Presumably Davy is trying to tap deeper into the apparently burgeoning market for managing rich farmers’ lolly.

Let’s face it – the big farmers’ lobby was conspicuously quiet during the bust. There was ne’er a sheep driven in anger through Dublin city centre. Commodities booms are a great healer.

Over the next few weeks senior portfolio managers Barry Kennedy and Ciaran McBrien will leave Goodbody's Galway office for Davy. Both men have worked for the firm for more than 15 years, joining within months of each other straight from college just as the boom was taking off. They will soon be joined by Rory Murphy, who is departing Goodbody to be a financial planning manager for Davy in the City of the Tribes. I suspect all three already know just how tribal things can get between Davy and Goodbody, the best of stockbroking enemies.

Western strategy
It's part of a strategy to double the size of Davy's private clients division west of the Shannon. The firm has reached deeper into the regions in recent years, expanding its Cork office and opening another in Belfast. What with all the "'wealth destruction" that has supposedly happened in recent years, isn't it interesting that stockbroking firms are so intensely battling it out for the best wealth managers?

I also hear the folk at Davy are feeling rather vindicated by some left-field predictions they made in their 2013 outlook. Not that any stockbrokers would ever be seen to be patting themselves on the back. Perish the thought.

Predicting Apple's share price would keep falling was a no-brainer for Davy, but forecasting takeovers for Dell, Nokia and Sony were not. The Dell and Nokia predictions have been borne out already. So watch out Sony.