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To: Think4Yourself who wrote (82763)	12/26/2000 9:33:04 PM
From: isopatch	Respond to of 95453

JQP. That's what they're paid to do. Afterall, you have often pointed, out how stupid some investors are. Well W.S. has been aware of that eternal verity for a good deal longer(g) and they take full advantage of it to "fleece the lambs" at every opportunity. In fact, doing so is still easy after the recent multi-year bull market has engendered such complacency that even after the selloff in the NAZ and many other market sectors this year, every strong ST rally puts sentiment numbers up into very bullish territory relatively quickly. This makes it relatively easy for analysts to lay off turkey stocks on novice or just plain dumb investors (usually the sellers are the brokerages in house trading department or important institutional clients) that most here would never consider buying. You may wonder how brokerage firms can screw large numbers of their clients that way and stay in biz? They stay in biz because their full commission brokers are trained to aggressively prospect for new accounts to replace the ones that crash and burn due to bad stock or options ideas from their firm. Yes, deep discount brokers have cut into this reservior of existing and potential accounts in recent years. But those clients tend to be more independent minded and less in need of "advice" and "research" from full service firms. Still it's surprising how many investors stay with full service brokers even if they're treated poorly. To some extent it's the devil you know vs the one you don't. Yes, there are excellent full service brokers and analysts who are reasonably trustworthy. And am sure there are at least a few folks on this thread who are well served by full service brokers. But for those who have run into problems. It's important to understand the circumstances that cause these things to happen. Analysts and brokers are sometimes subjected to considerable pressure from mgt to make a rec so that the firm can get rid of a block or two. Saw it happen many times when I was a broker. Isopatch