Blood on the Street: The Sensational Inside Story of How Wall Street Analysts Duped a Generation of Investors (2005) is a book by American journalist Charles Gasparino and published by Free Press. [1]
Gasparino originally broke the story of the dot-com bubble and impending stock market crash while writing for The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and he won the New York Press Club award for coverage of this and related Wall Street research scandals. [2] His WSJ articles prompted then New York State attorney general Eliot Spitzer to launch an investigation. Blood on the Street is a more in-depth analysis of the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s-early 2000s, described how it happened and who were largely responsible.
Barron's named the book one of the best of 2005, noting it details how corrupt research proliferated during the dot-com boom. Although the boundless optimism of that era has faded, the lessons are well worth remembering. [3]
Hank Boerner in Corporate Finance Review writes that the book is a very thorough narrative of the "financial analyst scandals" that led to the global settlement. [4]
The dot-com bubble was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s. The period coincided with massive growth in Internet adoption, a proliferation of available venture capital, and the rapid growth of valuations in new dot-com startups.
Dow Jones & Company, Inc. is an American publishing firm owned by News Corp and led by CEO Almar Latour.
Investment banking pertains to certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that consist in advisory-based financial transactions on behalf of individuals, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated with corporate finance, such a bank might assist in raising financial capital by underwriting or acting as the client's agent in the issuance of debt or equity securities. An investment bank may also assist companies involved in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and provide ancillary services such as market making, trading of derivatives and equity securities, FICC services or research. Most investment banks maintain prime brokerage and asset management departments in conjunction with their investment research businesses. As an industry, it is broken up into the Bulge Bracket, Middle Market, and boutique market.
The Wall Street Journal is an American business and economic-focused international daily newspaper based in New York City. The Journal is published six days a week by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp. The newspaper is published in broadsheet format and online. The Journal has been printed continuously since its inception on July 8, 1889, and is regarded as a newspaper of record, particularly in terms of business and financial news. The newspaper has won 39 Pulitzer Prizes, the most recent in 2023.
A financial analyst is a professional, undertaking financial analysis for external or internal clients as a core feature of the job. The role may specifically be titled securities analyst, research analyst, equity analyst, investment analyst, or ratings analyst. The job title is a broad one: in banking, and industry more generally, various other analyst-roles cover financial management and (credit) risk management, as opposed to focusing on investments and valuation; these are also discussed in this article.
Henry McKelvey Blodget is an American businessman, investor and journalist. He is notable for his former career as an equity research analyst who was senior Internet analyst for CIBC Oppenheimer and the head of the global Internet research team at Merrill Lynch during the dot-com era. Due to his violations of securities laws and subsequent civil trial conviction, Blodget is permanently banned from involvement in the securities industry. Blodget was the CEO of Business Insider.
Barron's is an American weekly magazine/newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp.
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The "Fed model", or "Fed Stock Valuation Model" (FSVM), is a disputed theory of equity valuation that compares the stock market's forward earnings yield to the nominal yield on long-term government bonds, and that the stock market – as a whole – is fairly valued, when the one-year forward-looking I/B/E/S earnings yield equals the 10-year nominal Treasury yield; deviations suggest over-or-under valuation.
Sell side is a term used in the financial services industry. The three main markets for this selling are the stock, bond, and foreign exchange market. It is a general term that indicates a firm that sells investment services to asset management firms, typically referred to as the buy side, or corporate entities. The sell side and the buy side work hand in hand and each side could not exist without the other. These services encompass a broad range of activities, including broking/dealing, investment banking, advisory functions, and investment research.
Charles Gasparino is an American journalist, blogger, and occasional radio host. He frequently serves as a panelist on the Fox Business Network program segment The Cost of Freedom and the stocks/business news program Cashin' In.
United States housing prices experienced a major market correction after the housing bubble that peaked in early 2006. Prices of real estate then adjusted downwards in late 2006, causing a loss of market liquidity and subprime defaults.
John "Edward" Horner Chancellor, is a British financial historian, finance journalist, and former hedge fund investment strategist and a former investment banker. In 2016, the Financial Analysts Journal called him "one of the great financial writers of our era", and in 2022, Fortune called him "one of the greatest financial historians alive". Chancellor is noted for his prescient warnings of the last three major economic bubbles in his published works: Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation, Crunch-Time for Credit?, and The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest.
Todd Harrison is the founder and former CEO of the Emmy Award-winning internet media company Minyanville.
Frank Partnoy is a Professor of Law at the University of California Berkeley School of Law. He was a George E. Barrett Professor of Law and Finance and the founding director of the Center on Corporate and Securities Law at the University of San Diego, where he taught for 21 years. He is a scholar of the complexities of modern finance and financial market regulation. He worked as a derivatives structurer at Morgan Stanley and CS First Boston during the mid-1990s and wrote F.I.A.S.C.O.: Blood in the Water on Wall Street, a book about his experiences there.
Stephen Leeb is a money manager and investment adviser. For more than 45 years he has been guiding investors via newsletters, books, blogs, and appearances on financial news networks including CNN, Fox News, NPR and Bloomberg TV.
Werner F.M. De Bondt is one of the founders in the field of behavioral finance. He is also the founding director of Richard H. Driehaus Center for Behavioral Finance at DePaul University in Chicago. Previously, he was the Frank Graner Professor of Investment Management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Thomas F. Gleed Chair of Business Administration at Albers School of Business and Economics at the Seattle University.
TipRanks is a financial technology company that uses artificial intelligence to analyze financial big data to provide stock market research tools for retail investors. The TipRanks Financial Accountability Engine™ scans and analyzes financial websites, corporate filings submitted to the SEC, and analyst ratings, to rank financial experts in real time.
Jeremy James Siegel is the Russell E. Palmer Professor of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Siegel comments extensively on the economy and financial markets. He appears regularly on networks including CNN, CNBC and NPR, and writes regular columns for Kiplinger's Personal Finance and Yahoo! Finance. Siegel's paradox is named after him.
Nathan E. "Ned" Davis, is an American financial analyst, finance author, and co-founder of the Ned Davis Research Group (NDRG), a data-driven investment research company based in Venice, Florida.