Am I to read the research objectivity standards to say that under no circumstances should we trade our personal accounts against our company’s recommendations? In other words there is no circumstance where it is considered ethical to offload your position, even if you feel you’ve realized your desired investment objective? You cant choose when to take profits? You have to wait on your company to issue a sell order?
the only time analyst may go contrary to firm’s position is when under financial duress…
This is correct. Would not look good if you made a ton of money trading against company recommendations.
Thats kind of goofy. I mean, sure you want to be with the firms rec’s but, sometimes you may be like, ok i wanted enough to buy a swimming pool, or my target was 9%, lets not be greedy, or whatever - people have a million motivations for selling stock… Oh well, my job ain’t to change it, my job is to get the question right.
Thats a valid point, some people following your recommendations might feel the same way but decide to trust your judgment since you’re the professional. Similar to Ib selling MBS securities to investors but at the same time trying to get them off their balance sheets as fast as possible.
trading to the contrary “could” give rise to a perception of market manipulation eg you may advise all the firms clients to buy (assuming they do buy) and then if you sell, it my look like you advised only to hike the price so you could profit.