Thursday, September 20, 2007

Banish them all

There’s always big trouble if you take brokerage reports seriously. They analyse everything to death.

I know there are surgical processes for genital rejuvenation, liposuction and buttock implants. Is there something for Analyst annihilation? Me thinks investors world over will only be too happy to pick up the tab.

Every day they brazenly appear on business channels, newspapers (and even your email inbox is not spared) advising you to buy some or other stock. You go by their words and you’ll never get out of it. They talk as if they are economists (they connect Ben Bernanke’s rate cut with the fortunes of Indian Banking stocks and still say “decoupling”), scientists (wax eloquently on the potential of a “new” drug discovery that never takes off) and technologists (a sure dud, it will be) all rolled into one.

Yesterday just five minutes before the market opened, one analyst said Sugar stocks have no scope for another year. He quoted over supply, low prices, policy hurdles and what not. Up they went 20% and hit the upper circuits. It had me in splits.

I have 40% of my portfolio in sugar. All bought at 52 week lows when everyone was busy buying overheated Real Estate, Infrastructure and Power sector stocks. I had another reason. Not one analyst put out a `buy’ on it.

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