myWealth.com

Never Listen to the Rating Agencies

Srdjan Popovic, I couldn't agree with you more. And it seems like they love to keep those "layers" happening all the time. Good comment. Thanks for posting it.


User 323736, no most of my stuff is in the forex market right now and in a few select ETFs getting poised for the market recovery in 2009. Have been out of all stocks for the most part of 2008. So I dodged the huge fall and am poised for the recovery. My stuff is all cash, no margin and longer term trades in stocks. In currencies, in 2008 I was long the U.S. dollar and yen but am no longer. I'm bearish on those now.


don2m, yes many firms used to "carry inventory" and still may. They would downgrade a stock, then buy it upon the sell off...upgrade it later on when they wanted to dump it so that they could sell into a rally and not move the market against them. Seems shady to me, but nonetheless happened. That's why I worked for Schwab back then...that stuff never happened there. Wall Street can get real dirty, real quickly...being a man of integrity, I could only work for one of the few that was like minded.


henarl, while I do believe Paulson is trying to do his best in this mess that he inherited, I also agree that the "saving" that they are doing has been selective. If you were a "buddy" of his clan, then you got saved. If not, you didn't. Goldman Sachs has always been a "tighter club" than any fraternity.

Yep Bob Lunn, there's always been "suspect" activity like that. I agree. These guys have a ton of power too...because many funds and pension funds can't invest in a country without 1 to 2 rating services deeming them "investment grade". So they can somewhat control where the "big river" of money goes to a certain degree. I agree.


James Wilson, you are exactly correct. 10 year olds see things clearly and honestly without bias. So the 10 year old saw things that the others didn't bother to see.

k45, yeah these guys act like they are looking into the future..but they are not "predictors" but rather "responders".. Correct.


BlueOkie, I found out long ago that I could mainly only rely on myself because of all of these biases that we're talking about here. Many are "paid" to be biased rather than giving honest assessments.

I do my own analysis first, fundamentally and technically on stocks and sectors while keeping a bigger "macro" view of things in mind too. Other than that, some of the only guys I'll usually listen to are Dennis Gartman, Jim Rogers and Warren Buffett. Old guys that have been doing this 30-40 years. I could care less what a 27 year old analyst has to say. What does he know. He hasn't usually seen his first "rough patch" yet. haha.

Yeah henarl, those are the main three that I will listen to. These guys have been around the block, stood the test of time and have seen every type of thing imaginable just about...come around a time or two at least. So I value grey hair..that's something that many valued in the past that many don't value much any more and I think that's a mistake. If I can learn from their experiences, then I don't have to "re-learn" it myself.