The First Market-Proven System for Understanding—and Profiting From—the Real Truth Behind Analysts' Recommendations

How can Wall Street analysts proclaim a stock as a "Strong Buy" at $60—and one year later call it "Neutral" at $17? Why would a stockbroker tell you to "Hold" a stock if his firm's research suggests it is destined to fall further?

And is there any way of knowing what analysts are thinking—versus what they are saying?

When Buy Means Sell shows you how to understand the real meanings behind analysts' recommendations and use them to your long-term advantage. This first-of-its-kind book discusses:

• When you should follow an analyst's advice—or do exactly the opposite
• Research into the track records of Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and other brokerage houses
• Time-proven rules of investing you should follow regardless of what analysts are saying

The legitimacy of analysts' advice is one of the most enduring myths of Wall Street. But Wall Street's multibillion-dollar research machine can provide you with outstanding guidance once you know how to use it. Let When Buy Means Sell show you how to determine what analysts really believe, and build a profitable portfolio based on what will work best for you—instead of for the analyst's employer.

Which brokerage firms have provided consistently strong stock recommendations in the computer and technology sector?

When does a plummeting stock price form intrinsic value for the underlying security, and when does it simply indicate a bad investment?

Which mutual fund manager has outperformed the S&P 500 Index every year since 1990—and what is he buying now?

Investors have discovered that blindly following the advice of brokerage house "analysts" and market pundits is chancy at best, and can be downright disastrous. While these recommendations appear to serve the investor, they often serve instead to inflate the price of questionable stocks—with those in the know getting out at the top while individual investors hang on for dear life as their portfolio values plummet.

So what are you to do? How can you get any value from advice published by stock analysts?

When Buy Means Sell presents a breakthrough system for reading between the lines and using Wall Street recommendations to beat the market. Based on an in-depth study of the records of today's top analysts and brokerages, this pull-no-punches book reveals:

• When to ignore words like "strong buy"—and which words really matter
• Strategies for using upgrades and downgrades to make profitable buy and sell decisions
• Inescapable rules and techniques that must be a part of every investing strategy

• Table of Contents

  	Acknowledgments
  	Introduction	1
  Ch. 1	Lessons from Corporate America	15
  Ch. 2	Rules of Engagement	25
  Ch. 3	Media and the Investor	43
  Ch. 4	Who Are the Analysts?	59
  Ch. 5	Types of Analysis: Fundamental Versus Technical	79
  Ch. 6	The Food Chain of Capital Markets	111
  Ch. 7	Broker Versus Mouse Click: The Evolution of Trading	131
  Ch. 8	Reputation, Trust, and Statistical Vengeance: Trust but Verify	145
  Ch. 9	When "Sell" Really Means "Buy"	169
  Ch. 10	Statistics, Probability, Chance, and Uncertainty	185
  Ch. 11	Taking Advantage of Regression to the Mean	199
  App	The Marketperform.com System	215
  	Index	223