Gray Newman & team  Morgan Stanley

After two consecutive years at the top, the Morgan Stanley quintet conducted by New York–based Gray Newman slips to second. In mid-July 2009, after Banco de México slashed the benchmark overnight rate to 4.5 percent — its seventh consecutive monthly cut — and the bank’s five-member board issued a statement saying it planned to “pause its current monetary easing cycle,” Gray and his colleagues predicted that Mexico’s interest rates would hold steady throughout 2010, despite fears of a spillover from a possible double-dip recession in the U.S. The economists’ call has thus far proved prescient; through July 2010 the benchmark rate remained at 4.5 percent, its lowest level since 2005. “Gray’s team understands what’s relevant for investors, while others are too academic,” observes a grateful client.