A number of brokerage portfolio strategists have sought refuge at new firms or jumped to the buy side. Mark Howdle, Schroder Salomon Smith Barney's London-based European strategist, is going a step further. He's quitting the City to teach and study at the University of Cambridge. "I'm 48, and I've been doing finance for about 17 years," says Howdle, who joined SSSB in 1998. "You become more conscious of the wear-and-tear factor as you get older."