Excerpted from MarketWatch article by Paul Farrell on the B.S. of Wall Street analysts and pundits. March 1999: Harry S. Dent, author of The Roaring 2000s "There has been a paradigm shift." (Translation: "This time it's different, a New Economy!") October 1999: James Glassman, author Dow 36,000 "What is dangerous is for Americans not to be in the market. We're going to reach a point where stocks are correctly priced, and we think that's 36,000 ... It's not a bubble. Far from it. The stock market is undervalued." (Warning, don't choke on your popcorn!) December 1999: Joseph Battipaglia, market analyst "Some fear a burst Internet bubble, but our analysis shows that Internet companies account for only 7% of the overall Nasdaq market cap but carry expected long-term growth rates twice those of other rapidly growing segments within tech." (The Internet Index lost two-thirds in the next six months.) December 1999: Larry Wachtel, Prudential "Most of these stocks are reasonably priced. There's not reason for them to correct violently in the year 2000." (Fact: The Nasdaq lost 50% in 2000.) December 1999: Ralph Acampora, Prudential Securities "I'm not saying this is a straight line up. I'm not saying you can't have pauses. I'm saying any kind of declines, buy them!" (He also predicted a 14,000 Dow by the end of 2000 and an 11-year bull.) February 2000: Larry Kudlow, CNBC commentator "This correction will run its course until the middle of the year. Then things will pick up again, because not even Greenspan can stop the Internet economy." (He's still an economist, hosting his own show.) April 2000: Myron Kandel, CNN "The bottom line is, before the end of the year, the Nasdaq and Dow will be at new record highs." (Later in September he predicted a rally to 12,000 by election day.) September 2000: Jim Cramer, CNBC commentator "SUNW probably has the best near-term outlook of any company I know." (Within four months Sun Microsystems went from $60 to $30, down to $10 in a year, below $3 in two years.) November 2000: Louis Rukeyser on CNN "Over the next year or two [the stock market] will be higher, and I know over the next five to 10 years it will be higher." (We crashed, fell into a recession, and in two years tech lost 70%.)
The funny thing is that I can probably find lots of posts from guys who said to short stocks before the crash . Analysts are useless since they make predictions and rarely trade, simply make broadstroke guesses. Their job is just like the weather person, they can be wrong day in and day out and still have a job because we can always blame the unpredictable forces lol..
Everyone one in this business likes to listen to or read a lot of yabber blabber about the markets and stocks from pundits, analysts and whoever. Of course a lot of it is horesh*t but, you know, we all seem to like it there as some sort of necessary wallpapering for all of us who are in this business or connected with it in some way.
Battipaglia? holy moly, I'm glad my last name was that or I would have been scarred all my life from kids poking fun at me.