Wall Street Research

NY Post:
- As stocks tank and Wall Street is re-made, even the best and brightest in the financial sector are getting their reputations shredded. Take, for example, Goldman Sachs, whose equity-research department is regarded as the gold standard on Wall Street but whose list of the best stocks to buy couldn't even keep pace with the sharp decline of the S&P 500 index, according to research done for The Post. Indeed, Goldman's "Conviction Buy" list of 44 stocks - as its best bets list is called - of July 23, 2008, exactly six months ago last Friday, fell 38.75 percent over the half-year while the S&P 500 was off 35.55 percent over the same period. Which means Goldman's team of $1 million-a-year equity analysts sold to company clients, for a pretty penny, advice that turned out worse than the performance garnered by a suburban family who invested in a low-cost Vanguard index mutual fund. The worst performer on the Conviction Buy List is The Mosaic Company (MOS), which in July was $135.38 with a target upside of 59 percent to $215. On Friday, Mosaic, the once-trendy fertilizer stock, closed at $35.39.

My Comment: Wall Street research is broken. The reality is that it's been broken for probably 5-10 years its just now apparent to everybody that it needs to mostly go away.

Source New York Post. 1/26/09.