Analysts Knew They Were Hyping Junk Stocks

from the no-big-surprise-there dept

While I'm sure it comes as no surprise to most people that Henry "Hype 'Em Up" Blodget was hyping up stocks that were worthless, it is surprising that he and his fellow analysts at Merrill Lynch were stupid enough to admit that in emails to each other. The emails have come out thanks to an investigation concerning exactly what these analysts were doing. They show that analysts referred to certain stocks as "a piece of junk" or "a piece of crap" while the firm was still promoting them as "strong buys" and making lots of money off of related trading. They even have an email where an analyst admits that many retail investors are probably "losing their retirement" thanks to their advice. Merrill Lynch's response is that these phrases were "taken out of context". Indeed. I think the necessary "context" is that they were raking in crazy amounts of cash.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Lea McAn...., 21 Apr 2002 @ 12:23pm

    Analysts Knew They Were Hyping Junk Stocks

    I don't know about anyone else, but when tech stocks were hot, I always had the uneasy feeling something was amiss. My thinking was along the lines that much of it was not backed by anything tangible. It seemed to me that people were investing emotionally, rather than logically.

    I know this may be too simplistic (and yes, I was blonde at one time), but was my take on tech stocks.

    Lea

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.