C'mon guys, I think we're taking this all a bit too seriously.
Re: the Buy/Sell/Hold segments, did anyone really believe that these analysts/managers could just rattle off insightful data on stocks without knowing ahead of time what the stocks in question would be? Yeah, let's see...I don't have a position in CPQ, yet I can--from memory--recite CPQ's (or any of the other stocks the callers ask about) chart pattern or sales data? Not!!! I mean, let's face it, anyone who takes the "Buy/Sell/Hold" segments seriously is kidding themselves in the first place, since the only stocks covered are always CPQ, DELL, MSFT, CSCO and LU. This is no conspiracy, rather, the reason these stocks are always the ones who make the "screener's cut" is because they are the stocks that Joe Sixpack wants to hear about. If Buy/Sell/Hold turned into an open forum where mid- and small-cap stocks were covered, Joe Sixpack, upon hearing stocks he'd never heard of, would quickly change the channel back to Ricki Lake. Remember, while CNBC is a news organization, they are also in the ratings game and the ratings game in financial reporting means you need to do overkill coverage on the Nifty Fifty to keep Joe Sixpack tuned in.
Re: the reporters'/hosts' ability to own stocks, WHY NOT? Wouldn't it be tough to understand and report on investor psychology if you yourself (the reporter) had never owned a stock yourself? As a broker myself, I think it would be impossible to understand how my clients are feeling about market downturns/surges, etc., if I didn't own stocks personally myself. I applaud these reporters who own stocks personally--if you owned a portfolio of small caps who've gotten demolished over the last few months, then you would have first-hand knowledge of how an average investor feels.
Re: the analysts who are apparently using their stroke with certain reporters to tout their own stuff...well, it happens and that's life. In the early-to-mid 90's I was a gaming analyst for a small regional firm based in Louisiana. I ran circles around most of my bigger Wall Street brethren, simply because being here on the Gulf Coast, I understood what was really going on with the expansion of gaming on the Gulf Coast. I got a lot of press in the local media as well as the industry journals, but rarely (maybe once every 3 months) got a call from Dow Jones or any of the national services, simply because our firm didn't have the "stroke" of a Bear Stearns or Smith Barney. The analysts with the large sell-side firms get the press because--again--Joe Sixpack could give a rats' ass what some guy in Louisiana is saying, compared to a household name like someone working for a wirehouse. That's just how the biz works--it doesn't matter how right or wrong I was, it was the big boys who could move stocks based on their opinions and because of that, they were the ones who got all the major press. And that's how it *should* be--right or wrong, they were the ones who had all the stroke and they should get the press. Yeah, some of the reporters (perhaps) buy into the hype too much on these analysts' comments, but on the flip side, Kernan/Haines/Faber do an excellent job of taking the guys who make the lousy self-serving calls to the woodshed. I mean, you don't need to watch CNBC a lot to notice Kernan or Faber shredding some analyst to pieces who made a bad call (witness the footage of the penguins jumping into the ice water--a classic analogy).
You guys need to stop taking this stuff so seriously and take the info presented for what it's worth. CNBC is in business to make a buck (just like you and me). If they didn't pay homage to the Nifty Fifty stocks, as well as the large sell-side analysts, Joe Sixpack would tune out, hence ratings would drop, and then there would be no CNBC. Joe Sixpack wants to know what the Merrills, the Smith Barneys and the Prudentials are saying because those are the guys he's heard of and respects.
On a side note, if you want to see some great in-depth coverage of stocks other than the Nifty Fifty "me-too" stocks, CNN/fn has some great coverage between 7 pm--11pm EST every night where they spend more than the average 2 minute sound bite talking to analysts in-depth about what they like and why they like them. In a perfect world, that is the kind of market-hours coverage I would like to see on CNBC and CNN/fn, however that is the kind of stuff that would make Joe Sixpack tune out--"Joe" only wants to hear about the stocks HE owns. Remember folks, ratings are what pay the bills. So keep that in mind when you criticize CNBC for the way they cover stocks. Believe me, I too am sick of hearing about MSFT/CPQ/DELL 50 times a day, but that is what "Joe" wants to hear about and that's what the advertisers want. It's not a conspiracy (as some people on this thread would believe), rather it is good business on CNBC's part.
Good luck,
Gary |
