I have been able to post some bank research recently (and I very much appreciate the info coming through to me).

For example, today there’s been these:

I post these items as information sources, to be read and assessed by ForexLive traders, for research purposes, not for anyone to just take the recommendations (where made) and follow them without critical examination. I note there is sometimes a degree of skepticism about the reports in the comments … and that’s cool too.

I came across this post from one my favourite blogs. Its related to the stock market, but I reckon it has relevance to all financial market/financial instrument research … to some degree or other. Some quotes, bolding mine:

  • I recently saw someone refer to Molycorp (MCP) as one of the greatest “pump and dump” schemes ever. In the last week it lost about a third of its market cap in the wake of a disappointing earnings report. Stories also mentioned a downgrade by J.P. Morgan from “neutral” to “underweight.”
  • The real damage to investors was done during 2011 and 2012 when the hype machine was going full steam even as MCP was falling from its highs. Implied upside was routinely near 100%. Over what time frame? Who knows? According to Bloomberg’s data the J.P. “forecasts” were for anywhere from three to twelve months, and in some cases not specified. Industry practice can best be described as “whatever.”

Read the whole thing, its brief … The hype machine (OK, with a title like that, how can you not read it?)

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I would also add, ’cause I need to fair, that any piece of research provided cannot possibly take into account all the objectives, timeframes, risk tolerances etc. etc. of all potential readers.

In a similar vein … the research that flows out of an investment bank (for example) will represent the views of the writer (or group of writers) and it does not mean that the entire bank, and every dealer/trader/manager in the bank, will share the view … they might well do, they might not. Even those who share the view may trade opposite it if the risk/reward opportunity arises to reasonably do so.