Definition of Analyst

Analyst

Employee of a brokerage or fund management house who studies companies and makes buy-and-sell
recommendations on their stocks. Most specialize in a specific industry.

Buy-side analyst

A financial analyst employed by a non-brokerage firm, typically one of the larger money
management firms that purchase securities on their own accounts.

Financial analysts

Also called securities analysts and investment analysts, professionals who analyze
financial statements, interview corporate executives, and attend trade shows, in order to write reports
recommending either purchasing, selling, or holding various stocks.

fundamental analysts

analysts who attempt to find under- or overvalued securities by analyzing fundamental information, such as earnings, asset values, and business prospects.

Investment analysts

Related: financial analysts

Securities analysts

Related:financial analysts

Sell-side analyst

Also called a Wall Street analyst, a financial analyst who works for a brokerage firm and
whose recommendations are passed on to the brokerage firm's customers.

Technical analysts

Also called chartists or technicians, analysts who use mechanical rules to detect changes
in the supply of and demand for a stock and capitalize on the expected change.

technical analysts

Investors who attempt to identify over- or undervalued stocks by searching for patterns in past prices.

Wall Street analyst

Related: Sell-side analyst.

Appraisal ratio

The signal-to-noise ratio of an analyst's forecasts. The ratio of alpha to residual standard
deviation.

Breakout

A rise in a security's price above a resistance level (commonly its previous high price) or drop
below a level of support (commonly the former lowest price.) A breakout is taken to signify a continuing
move in the same direction. Can be used by technical analysts as a buy or sell indicator.

Chartists

Related: technical analysts.

Commission

The fee paid to a broker to execute a trade, based on number of shares, bonds, options, and/or
their dollar value. In 1975, deregulation led to the creation of discount brokers, who charge lower
commissions than full service brokers. Full service brokers offer advice and usually have a full staff of
analysts who follow specific industries. Discount brokers simply execute a client's order -- and usually do not
offer an opinion on a stock. Also known as a round-turn.

Confidence indicator

A measure of investors' faith in the economy and the securities market. A low or
deteriorating level of confidence is considered by many technical analysts as a bearish sign.

Consensus forecast

The mean of all financial analysts' forecasts for a company.

Earning Power

A company's ability to generate a sustainable, and likely growing, stream of
earnings that provide cash flow.
Earnings Management The active manipulation of earnings toward a predetermined target.
That target may be one set by management, a forecast made by analysts, or an amount that is consistent with a smoother, more sustainable earnings stream. Often, although not always, earnings management entails taking steps to reduce and “store” profits during good years for use during slower years. This more limited form of earnings management is known as income smoothing.

Earnings Management

The active manipulation of earnings toward a predetermined target.
That target may be one set by management, a forecast made by analysts, or an amount that is consistent
with a smoother, more sustainable earnings stream. Often, although not always, earnings
management entails taking steps to reduce and “store” profits during good years for use during
slower years. This more limited form of earnings management is known as income smoothing.

Financial ratio

The result of dividing one financial statement item by another. Ratios help analysts interpret
financial statements by focussing on specific relationships.

Head & shoulders

In technical analysis, a chart formation in which a stock price reaches a peak and declines,
rises above its former peak and again declines and rises again but not to the second peak and then again
declines. The first and third peaks are shoulders, while the second peak is the formation's head. Technical
analysts generally consider a head and shoulders formation to be a very bearish indication.

Information Coefficient (IC)

The correlation between predicted and actual stock returns, sometimes used to
measure the value of a financial analyst. An IC of 1.0 indicates a perfect linear relationship between predicted
and actual returns, while an IC of 0.0 indicates no linear relationship.

Neglected firm effect

The tendency of firms that are neglected by security analysts to outperform firms that
are the subject of considerable attention.

Price-volume relationship

A relationship espoused by some technical analysts that signals continuing rises
and falls in security prices based on accompanying changes in volume traded.

Quant

A quantitative analyst; someone who does numerical analysis of
financial information in order to detect relationships, disparities, or patterns
that can lead to making money.

Ratings

An evaluation of credit quality Moody's, S&P, and Fitch Investors Service give to companies used by
investors and analysts.

Technician

Related: technical analysts

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