I read a research report this morning from JP Morgan analyst Ehud Gelblum regarding the Qualcomm settlement with Nokia. The report was dated 25 July 2008 but used the stock price from 18 July 2008 to justify the Buy rating. If I knew that the stock was going to pop 15% then I would have bought more of it last week too. Usually, I would not be surprised given my complete lack of respect for sell side analysts but I met Dr. Gelblum at the JP Morgan Tech conference earlier this year and left with the impression of a sharp guy who actually understands technology rather than the usual cream puffs that JP Morgan calls financial analysts. I’m sure there is some jealousy involved in this post. As a buy side analyst I am evaluated on actual results and it would certainly be easier to get paid twice as much to tell people to buy stocks last week. If you want to be a historian, stop calling yourself an analyst. It’s embarrassing to the rest of us.
Stephen Rush 