The Pied Pipers of Wall Street: How Analysts Sell You Down the River

By Benjamin Mark Cole

Explains why investors should not rely too heavily on the opinions of brokerage firm analysts, arguing that securities analysts often place the interests of the firm ahead of the interests of regular investors.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1576600831
• ISBN13: 9781576600832
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Bloomberg Pr
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

I rate this book a strong "buy"

"The Pied Pipers of Wall Street" is a blockbuster of a book. Benjamin Cole has produced a searing indictment of an industry whose inherent conflicts have turned it into a deathtrap for unsuspecting investors. Though a tidy 219 pages, this is a thoroughly researched book and is full of stinging and poignant anecdotes about two-timing stock analysts and debunking short sellers. Cole also offers up a crash history lesson on the stock brokerage and investment banking businesses that gives readers a solid appreciation of how those practices evolved and why they became so conflicted.Besides his sure-handed command of the subject matter, the author lends additional credibility to his book by steering clear of hyperbole and hyperventilation, instead letting his research and shocking case studies raise the decibel level. The book also offers sources of honest stock research and analysis that investors can trust, then concludes by outlining several regulatory strategies being contemplated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to remedy the problem.All in all, "The Pied Pipers of Wall Street" is a great work of public service by a journalist who has held the stock houses up to the public humiliation they richly deserve while throwing a life raft to investors.

Brilliant Analysis for Investors

Is Ben Cole the only financial journalist in America who has the guts to tell the truth on how big brokerage firms are selling millions of investors down the river? Cole has done a masterful job in analyzing a major problem on Wall Street; the extinction of analysts on Wall Street who recommend selling stocks regardless of the price-to-earnings ratios of certain publicly traded companies. These experts work at large brokerage firms on Wall Street and play a crucial role in recommending to millions of investors which stocks to buy. Contrary to popular opinion on the television shows, these analysts are not objective because their real job is to bring in big underwriting fees for their firms. Cole outlines that investment banking -- raising money for companies that need cash is where the real money is made on Wall Street. Brokerages make millions on fees from those deals, so analysts will promote stocks that are flagging in the marketplace. Investors are lemmings following the next analysts' "buy" recommendation, as they loose their limited resources while investment banks cash in on those deals. I work in the financial services industry and have advanced degrees, but I find that Ben Cole's book has given me a market analysis I could never get from the "Gurus" on Wall Street. There is an important reason why the prestigious Bloomberg Press published this wonderfully researched and written book, because I am one of 78 million baby-boomers who will keep investing for years and this book will become the reference work of investing for years to come. A must read for investors.

This book is a must-read in a sea of bad Wall Street Books.

If you want to get a birdseye view of how the brokerages say there are looking out for your interest when they are mainly focused on maximizing their profit margins, get this book and read it twice. If you want to go lazily along thinking your stockbroker isn't like "the other guys" disregard it and then you'll have no one to blame. Cole's writing is punchy and concise, his book well-organized and you come away not only as a better stock-owner but a more trenchant Wall Street analyst. As Cole points out, catchy phrases about investing smart only apply to those who understand that self interest runs the world. It's about time somebody wrote a book for the average stock owner. Too much power is controlled by the big boys. Highly recommended.

Why Wall Street Analysts Can't Be Trusted

This is the first book that I've read that clearly explains the conflicts of interests that make most Wall Street analysts untrustworthy. Using studies, anecdotes, and analyses of the stock market, Benjamin Cole clearly shows why most investors shouldn't trust recommendations by the talking-head analysts on CNBC. The book also recommends where to go to get good advice -- Web sites, etc. Lively, quick read. Check it out.

Packed With Knowledge!

The best proof of Benjamin Mark Cole's premise - that brokerage houses have sold out common investors to curry favor with huge corporate interests - is the ease with which he accumulates examples of analysts hyping stocks that later went bust. Can the combination of self-interest, analyst hype, and subsequent stock price implosion somehow be coincidental? Or is it time to start calling a duck a duck (or, for that matter, a quack a quack)? Cole's indictment of Wall Street's most efficient salesmen comes just in time for investors looking for a culprit in the overnight evaporation of billions of dollars in retirement funds. Of course, analysts can't be blamed for the stock-market downturn, but their behavior during the run up deserves the close scrutiny it receives here. We [...] recommend this book to any investor who suspects that the true talent of the talking heads they see on CNBC might really be turning your money into theirs.