can I get a job as a stock "anal"yst?

just watching the market fall apart AGAIN today and a news item come up on the DJ wire "Baidu.com (BIDU - nasdaq) cut from buy to sell by Citigroup"

 

now this Chinese Google clone was @ $325 3 moths ago, $275 mid October and @ $220 on November 10th, 7 trading days ago.

 

current price? just over $112

 

 

Ya I know they are all MBA's and CFA's, I was being snotty because I used to WORK with these arrogant assholes years gao when I was a retail RR. they were a joke back then and an even BIGGER joke now.

 

I remember when the oil market took a dive back in the early 1980's. I was a rep for a Houston based brokerage firm that was THE "oil patch brokerage" and we were the LAST ones to advise people to get out of oil and oil service stocks. as the bad joke went back then "Jeffery Hertell (our lead oil analyst) forgot how to say "Sell" and now our potfolios have ALL gone to HELL"

Does anyone want my advice?  I feel like I can do just as well as them in this situation.  I don't even charge...ok here it is...the market is sucking right now.....We all have no clue what is going on here....The market is going to go down around 6700....I would stay clear until we start to see it turn around....then still be cautious just to make sure the smoke has cleared....say a prayer....do some push ups....drink some OJ....and then start buying. 

 

I don't even have a MBA

bad times right now

does that outfit still exist?

 

it was Rotan Mossley (aka "Rotten Mossel"), Vermeer. when they road the oil market down they ended up being bought out by what was then Paine Webber (now UBS). sure was great while it lasted, though. we were the "Hambrect & Quist of the oil patch". I NEVER had to cold call because we had people calling in from all over the country wanting to get our new issues or just trade oil and oil service with us.

 

we actually DID have some good analysts at Rotan in the non-oil "Southwest Special Situations" part of the company esp in airlines (our guy was the first to blow the whistle on Frank Lorenzo's financial BS @ Continental Airlines) and local tech companies  (another was strong on COMPAQ Computer when it was a startup and everyone thought IBM was going to run them over back in the mid 80's). a LOT of customers that listened about CMPQ (the old compaq nasdaq symbol) who BOT and HELD when it was a 4-5 dollar stock back then became millionaires.

I was in the Clear Lake office and we had a crew of wildassed traders with option gambler customers there. won't put any names "in the street" BUT we  consistantly had the highest per broker monthly production in the company. NASA area was a GREAT place to live and work back then. was one big party.

the NASA Clear Lake area, because of all the engineers and science people living there, was an island of culture in a sea of rednecks. Clear Lake and Clear Creek school districts were two of the best in Texas if not the whole country.  

 

well my "mad cow" cleared up for awhile and FINALLY remembered those two names that were REALLY good fundamental analysts for us at Rotan back then, Vermeer. they were Tim Petty in transportation (mostly airlines) and Johnny Turro in "Southwest Special Situations".