Full of Bull (Updated Edition): Unscramble Wall Street Doubletalk to Protect and Build Your Portfolio

Product Author Bios

Stephen T. McClellan was a Wall Street investment analyst for 32 years, covering high-tech stocks as a supervisory analyst. He was a First Vice President at Merrill Lynch for 18 years until 2003, and ranked on the annual Institutional Investor All-America Research Team 19 consecutive times, The Wall Street Journal poll for 7 years, and has a place in the Journal’s Hall of Fame. From 1977 to 1985, he was a Vice President at Salomon Brothers and before that held a similar position at Spencer Trask for 6 years. Before commencing his Wall Street career, he was an industry analyst with the U.S. Department of Commerce. From 1964 to 1967, the author served as an operations officer aboard the USS Suffolk County (LST-1173) in the U.S. Navy.

    Mr. McClellan has a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, is a member of the New York CFA Society and the CFA Institute, was President of the New York Computer Industry Analyst Group, and was President and Founder of the Software/Services Analyst Group. He has made television appearances on Bloomberg TV, FoxBusiness News, CBS, CNN MoneyLine, CNBC, and Wall Street Week. He has conducted several radio interviews on such programs as Bob Brinker’s Moneytalk and given presentations to numerous organizations, at conferences, and to companies. Mr. McClellan has published articles in the Financial Times, The New York Times, Forbes, and other publications. His MBA in Finance is from George Washington University and his BA is from Syracuse University.

    The author’s speaker’s bureau is Leading Authorities, Inc., in Washington, DC. His website is www.stephentmcclellan.com.

“Only Stephen McClellan could have written this book. As a senior statesman of industry analysts, Steve has worked in the inner circles of Wall Street for over thirty years. When Steve talks, everyone in the industry listens. This book is like a college extension course for investors, and it’s taught by the Dean.”

–H. Ross Perot, Sr., Founder, Electronic Data Systems, Founder, Former Chairman, Perot Systems

“Steve McClellan has drawn on an insider’s lifetime view of how Wall Street really works to produce a practical and entertaining book of advice for investors. Whether you are a new or experienced investor you’ll get something valuable out of it, including more than a few chuckles.”

–Charles O. Rossotti, Former Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service

“Steve McClellan’s Full of Bull provides a long overdue insight into the confusing maze of Wall Street analysis and stock recommendations. This book exposes The Street’s ‘insider code’ and provides both a cautionary tale and an indispensable guide into the Byzantine world of investment analysis.”

–Thomas M. Siebel, Founder, Siebel Systems, Chairman, First Virtual Group

“Steve McClellan is one of the smartest guys in the investment industry. For years his research helped investors figure out how to get better returns. Now he’s collected a career’s worth of observations and conclusions about how Wall Street works and how to avoid the mistakes that cost ordinary people millions–no, billions–of dollars everyday. Read this book and have more money for your retirement.’’

–Doron Levin, Columnist, Bloomberg News

“Today the typical share is held much less than a year, usually by an institution, speculator, or insider whose gains are at the expense of the under-informed or misinformed individual investor. Securities analysts are of little help. With his 30+ years of relevant experience, Steve McClellan tells you why and how to better protect yourself if you’re an individual investor.”

–Josh W. Weston, Former Chairman, Automatic Data Processing

They mislead. They confuse. You can’t afford to listen to one word stock analysts say–especially not right now. Wall Street won’t tell you how to protect your capital or steer you toward gains. The Street is good at selling, not analyzing; it wants you to trade, not invest. In Full of Bull, one of the Street’s leading insiders reveals the hidden code behind Wall Street’s Byzantine practices.

For decades, Stephen McClellan was one of the Street’s top analysts–he knows exactly how the game is played. Now, in this revised guide for the individual investor, he describes how Wall Street came to cost investors billions by denying the realities of a market collapse in progress. He explains how a congenitally favorable bias led brokerages to keep recommending stocks, such as AIG and Fannie Mae, up until the moment of their ultimate demise.

In Full of Bull, you’ll learn how to look for analysts’ favoritism and blind spots; how to react appropriately to upgrades, downgrades, and price targets; and how to recognize what company announcements really mean. Drawing on his immense body of experience analyzing top companies, McClellan shows you how to systematically evaluate a company’s prospects and choose investments based on principles that work. This is exactly the kind of objective, focused guidance you won’t be getting from your broker!

Online Sample Chapter

Decoding Wall Street's Well-Kept Secrets

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments  viii

About the Author  x

Preface  xi

Chapter 1        Decoding Wall Street’s Well-Kept Secrets  1

Chapter 2        Understanding Wall Street’s Misleading Practices  33

Chapter 3        Strategies in Quest of the Ideal Investment  57

Chapter 4        Investment Strategies to Survive in a Bear Market  89

Chapter 5        Evaluating Companies as Investment Candidates  101

Chapter 6        Executive Traits Are a Revealing Investment Gauge  123

Chapter 7        How Street Analysts Really Operate  147

Chapter 8        Reforming Research to Level the Playing Field  175

Afterword  191

Glossary  197

Index  217

Sample Pages

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