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Technology Stocks : Analyst Bashing (intc orcl mu amat csco) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: j g cordes who wrote (16)	12/23/1997 11:37:00 AM
From: GrokSoup	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 62

Speaking as a former analyst, analysts deserve much of the bashing that they get. But keep in mind that it's a nearly impossible job, trying to serve the demands of three different masters, all the while making predictions about a marketplace that you cannot control for more than a few minutes of trading (if that). Further, most academic studies have shown that analysts have minimal medium- or long-term effect on the stocks that they cover. As a matter of fact, a recent Financial Analysts's Journal article tested whether firms with and without analyst coverage performed differently (along the way toward testing various hypotheses about "undiscovered" stocks)and found that there was no significant difference. With respect to the sentiment comment in an earlier post, I have a related story for you all. My assistant and I used to use something very much like that. We would keep track of the number of congratulating comments from analysts on quarterly conference calls ("Attaboys!", we called them) and make predictions about how the stock would open the next morning based on the Attaboy! index. Lots of Attaboys! made for a big bounce the next day; few Attaboys! made for a flat or down stock. It wasn't exactly right out of a CFA course, but it worked damn well. P.