It's perhaps not surprising, then, that a recent study showed that analysts issue "buy" recommendations seven times as often as "sell" recommendations.
It was a year that produced carefully researched "buy" recommendations from respected analysts for companies with phony profits and lying executives.
The Bolsa's week began with the kind of upswing that set analysts to presenting rosy scenarios and buy recommendations.
It said the brokerage house would provide investment advice and buy and sell recommendations to clients on a variety of securities.
Heck, in one hour you could issue "buy" recommendations on ten piece-of-junk Internet companies!
Wall Street analysts issued "buy" recommendations while yukking it up in internal e-mails that the stocks were junk.
Device software can be kept up to date, and vendors can track what people buy and make personalized recommendations for new material they might like.
During the boom, analysts routinely issued glowing reports and "buy recommendations" on companies whose business the investment bankers would like to win.
In 1990 they issued six "buy" recommendations for every "sell."
The news lifted Abbott's stock by about 5 percent, and prompted several analysts to issue "buy" recommendations for Abbott shares.