ride someone's coat-tails
to benefit from someone else's success
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Last year Conservative and Labour MPs mocked Nick Clegg as a "mini-me" RIDING ON THE COAT-TAILS of David Cameron.
(BBC News)
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As many as 40 Indian companies plan to list their shares on the Bombay stock exchange in the next few months, hoping to RIDE THE COATTAILS of a post-election rally that has propelled the benchmark Sensex index up more than 30% since mid-May.
(BusinessWeek magazine)
(BBC News)
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As many as 40 Indian companies plan to list their shares on the Bombay stock exchange in the next few months, hoping to RIDE THE COATTAILS of a post-election rally that has propelled the benchmark Sensex index up more than 30% since mid-May.
(BusinessWeek magazine)
Did you
know?
ride someone's coat-tails (also written as "coattails")
idiom
- benefit from the success of (another), sometimes undeservedly
(Oxford English Dictionary)
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In the days when gentlemen were still gentlemen and ladies still ladies, men of stature and prominence often wore formal dress coats in which the back part hung below the waist, sometimes down to the ground. Thus riding on someone's coat-tails is a vivid way to describe following the success of another.
In politics, the "coattail effect" describes what happens when a very popular candidate - usually for a higher political office - helps other members of his party win their elections (California state democrats hope to ride Obama's coat-tails).
In the world of finance, "coat-tail investing" is a process that occurs when an investor attempts to duplicate strategies that have proven successful for another investor. In order to accomplish this process of imitating success, the investor will initiate the copycat trades as soon as the trading performance is made public. When the trading is accomplished in close proximity to the original activity, the expectation is that the coat-tail investor will be able to at least make a modest profit before the market changes and the trade loses upward momentum.
When used by itself, coat-tails means "immediately following or the direct result of" (Stocks rallied on the coat-tails of the company's annual report).
(source: Wikipedia, WiseGeek)
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"It's not unusual to see politicians ride the coat-tails of others to get elected."
idiom
- benefit from the success of (another), sometimes undeservedly
(Oxford English Dictionary)
---
In the days when gentlemen were still gentlemen and ladies still ladies, men of stature and prominence often wore formal dress coats in which the back part hung below the waist, sometimes down to the ground. Thus riding on someone's coat-tails is a vivid way to describe following the success of another.
In politics, the "coattail effect" describes what happens when a very popular candidate - usually for a higher political office - helps other members of his party win their elections (California state democrats hope to ride Obama's coat-tails).
In the world of finance, "coat-tail investing" is a process that occurs when an investor attempts to duplicate strategies that have proven successful for another investor. In order to accomplish this process of imitating success, the investor will initiate the copycat trades as soon as the trading performance is made public. When the trading is accomplished in close proximity to the original activity, the expectation is that the coat-tail investor will be able to at least make a modest profit before the market changes and the trade loses upward momentum.
When used by itself, coat-tails means "immediately following or the direct result of" (Stocks rallied on the coat-tails of the company's annual report).
(source: Wikipedia, WiseGeek)
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"It's not unusual to see politicians ride the coat-tails of others to get elected."
