"Since becoming President, Barack Obama has held seven lunches with small groups of chairmen and chief executive officers, including Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, Ken Chenault of American Express, Ursula Burns of Xerox, and Howard Schultz of Starbucks. In four of the lunches, the guests' companies, as a group, outperformed the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index 30 trading days after the repast. In two cases, the groups' shares underperformed the S&P 500 a month after lunch with the Commander-in-Chief. Altogether, the six lunch groups outdid the S&P by more than two percentage points. Thirty days haven't elapsed since a seventh lunch held on July 1.
Just a coincidence? Only partly, says Barry Ritholtz, CEO of equity research firm Fusion IQ. Losers don't get asked to hang out with the President, he says. The White House likely is putting together invitation lists so that the President is dining with executives at the top of their games and not associating with companies in decline or under investigation. "If the captain of your team gets a phone call from the White House, it probably means your team is about to win the World Series or already has won," Ritholtz says. Adds Andrew Rudd, CEO of Advisor Software: "Obama is trying to associate himself with winners and it's sort of potentially reinforcing."
Stockpicking Tips from President Obama? - BusinessWeek
Maybe it will work in the UK, a summons to see the Queen?
Knowing my luck, I'd get beheaded 
