A few simple questions about analyst recommendations?

Question

Hey people. I'm kinda new to the world of trading. I've read a few tutorials about the basics of trading in Investopedia and some other books. Before I start to try it on real, I want to read some analysts recommendations to see how pros think and process the data. Therefore I have a few questions about it:

a. Usually what organizations/companies/firms release these recommendations? Are there specific firms for such stock analysis which release these recommendations or maybe many brokerage firms release these as part of their job? Also, are there many like famous independent professionals who release such recommendations not on behalf of any firm?

b. What is the scale of the number of companies/firms/independent professionals who usually release such recommendations on the stocks in the biggest exchanges(lets say NYSE or NASDAQ)? Is there just a few dozens who are famous in this field or there are many hundreds of such recommendations?

c. What is usually the time period between two consecutive recommendations? I mean, usually such firms release such recommendations every few months or a year, or there are also recommendations for stocks which are being released every few weeks/months?

d. And for my last question, can you guys give me any tips about how to search such recommendations? For example, when I googled "nasdaq stock recommendations" then it mostly led me to the nasdaq site in which for every stock I can see a summarize of recommendations in the form of "buy/hold/sold", without any details about the recommendations themselves(I don't need the full information on all the calculations that led to their result, but information such as when the recommendation was published and for how long it is intended to might be helpful). Are there any sites which present such information about variety of recommendations?

Also, if there is any tutorial/guide/text on the internet that might be helpful to answer my questions I will be grateful if you post the link here. Thanks a lot :)

Answer 1

Your questions actually hold the correct answers. It's all the above. What you don't ask is more important..... can you make money from these recommendations?



The answer is generally no. A recommendation without a continuing risk management plan is truly worth nothing. That's why the information is released for free.



You can make money by trading these on the day the info is released, sometimes for another day or two. It'd not that the recommendations are "good", it's just that ignorant investors think they have value and drive the stocks up.



I use BenzingaPro to find these opportunities... but be aware it takes years of learning to profit from these day and swing trades.

Answer 2

Why should a broker's analyst who is paid $100,000's tell you what stocks to buy and what to sell?

From my experience analyst are usually right in the long term but often wrong in the short term.

There ain't no books that tell you how to 'win' (why should there be?). Just read verything you can and make your own decision.

Answer 3

Yeah whenever they are already long a stock, they highly recommend you buy it. Whenever they have already out of a stock or want to buy it cheaper, they recommend you sell yours.