>-- Buy recommendations outnumber sells by 72 to 1. The ratio 10 years
>ago was 10 to 1
Well, I'm doing my bit -- I put out three Sells today (on Deutsche, Dresdner and Commerzbank) :-)
This factoid is actually a bit underwhelming and is more to do with the rise of the "investor relations" industry than anything else. If you put out a Sell, you get a nasty call from the IR people, they tell you you're disinvited from dinner with the CFO, etc, etc. Then corporate finance get on your ass (if you work for an integrated house) for screwing their deal. If you're really unlucky like our Egypt guy, you get turned into a national hate figure. It's so much hassle that most people would rather put out a "hold" and get on the phones explaining that it's a "broker's Hold" (ie, Sell).
But the days when anyone paid any attention to the Buy/Sell/Hold in the top right corner of a broker note are long gone. Most buy-side houses have their own internal analysts now who come up with recc's that are not made published.
cheers
dd
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