Law Commons^™

Rating Sell-Side Analysts: A Shift From Subjectivity To Empirically Verifiable Facts, Andrew M. Labreche

Andrew M LaBreche

Throughout the early 1990’s, the stock market experienced seemingly limitless growth, with retail investors realizing healthy returns based on positive recommendations from sell-side analysts. However, as the 1990’s progressed, the technology bubble burst and millions of retail investors lost billions of dollars relying on fraudulent analyst recommendations. This article will detail the self-reinforcing relationship between investment banks, institutional investors and sell-side analysts that systematically disadvantaged retail investors throughout the 1990’s. It will then examine the attempted legislative, judicial and administrative remedies that have resulted from this situation. Specifically, this article will focus on the failures of those remedial measures and …