Is Weiss Research, Inc. a legitimate financial research company?
"This company was a reputable rating agency for many years. See Weiss Research website, ratings section for a very different perspective on Martin Weiss's work than the websites with which he is now associated. I checked both links provided, and agree with the questioner in every way: These appear to be highly questionable investment research websites. I use such strong terms based on the fact that the website actually uses the distasteful pop-up ploy,  ""Are you SURE you want to leave this site?"" Clearly, something changed between what Weiss Ratings was in the past (per company history since 1971) and what Martin Weiss is doing now. Larry Edelson seems to have been associated exclusively with questionable websites and high pressure investment advice since 2007. From 1996 through the present, he worked as either an employee or contractor of Weiss Research. Let's answer each of your questions.  On June 22, 2006, the Commission instituted settled administrative   proceedings against Weiss Research, Inc., Martin Weiss, and Lawrence   Edelson (collectively, “Respondents”) for violations of the Investment   Advisers Act of 1940 in connection with their operation of an   unregistered investment adviser and the production and distribution of   materially false and misleading marketing materials. Full details about Weiss Ratings operations, including its history from 1996 through 2001, when it operated in compliance with securities laws, then from 2001 through 2005, which was when the SEC filed charges for regulatory violations, are available from the June 2006 U.S. SEC court documents PDF. Finally, this quantitative assessment, ""Safe With Martin Weiss? (December 2010) by CXO Advisory (providers of ""objective research and reviews to aid investing decisions"") for its readers concluded the following: In summary, the performance of Martin Weiss’ premium services in   aggregate over the past year is unimpressive. The study methodology was good, but I recommend reading the article (I posted the URL) to fully understand what caveats and assumptions were done to reach that conclusion." Weiss Ratings is an independent company providing data and analysis for the bank and insurance industries.  We’ve published the Weiss Financial Strength Ratings for banking institutions  and insurance companies since 1989 and continue to use the methodology praised by the GAO back in 1994.  Weiss Ratings has consistently graded failed institutions in the lowest Weiss Rating tier at the time of failure. We invite you to look at the Weiss Ratings' track record. It is a scam organization praying on fear of the simple minded.  The facts Edelson presents are not accurate -  http://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2006/ia-2525.pdf
I am very familiar with the Bloomberg terminal service and agree that their info on securities &amp; markets, especially fixed income, is unparalleled.  However, their news and editorial departments espouse the viewpoints of Michael Bloomberg such as being permabullish in the face of data, pro gun control, pro immigration (legal+illegal), pro Israel, and pro Sunni monarchies (Saudi et al). I recall at the time that people on investment boards were circulating lists of companies audited by AA, as a - quite reliable - indication that they were fraudulent.   I have had a lot of dealings with their offshoot AA Consulting, now known as Accenture. These dealings have not, to put it mildly, given me any reason to think that AA's culture was very ethical. And if you cannot trust an auditor, they are worthless. What you were told isn't an absolute truth, so trying to counter something fundamentally flawed won't get you anywhere.  For example: chinese midcap equities are up 20% this year, even from their high of 100%. While the BSE Sensex in India is down several percentage points on the year. Your portfolio would have lost money this year taking advice from your peers. The fluctuation in the rupees and remnibi would not have changed this fact. What you are asking is a pretty common area of research, as in several people will write their dissertation on the exact same topic every year, and you should be able to find various analysis and theories on the subject. But the macroeconomic landscape changes, a lot. "I like Muro questions! No, I don't think they do.  Because for me, as a personal finance investor type just trying to save for retirement, they mean nothing. If I cannot tell what the basic business model of a company is, and how that business model is profitable and makes money, then that is a ""no buy"" for me.  If I do understand it, they I can do some more looking into the stock and company and see if I want to purchase. I buy index funds that are indexes of industries and companies I can understand.  I let a fund manager worry about the details, but I get myself in the right ballpark and I use a simple logic test to get there, not the word of a rating agency. If belong in the system as a whole, I could not really say.  I could not possibly do the level of accounting research and other investigation that rating agencies do, so even if the business model is sound I might lose an investment because the company is not an ethical one.  Again, that is the job of my fund manager to determine.  Furthermore and I mitigate that risk by buying indexes instead of individual stock." Is there one out there that doesn't suffer from massive survivorship bias? Most that I've looked at gather their data from discretionary reporting from the manager themselves, and many stop reporting after bad months when they aren't going to be raising capital anyway. I've seen this tool.  I'm just having a hard time finding where I can just get a list of all the companies.    For example, you can get up to 100 results at a time, if I just search latest filings for 10-K.  This isn't really an efficient way to go about what I want. &gt; Wait, so you can travel to see clients but can't travel to visit companies/do research? Don't clients respect alpha over face time?  Sounds like absolutely typical financial company behavior.  Especially with the research showing that active management (i.e., that alpha you mention) is only a product of luck anyways. "Yes, I did. I won't deny it. But, as I said in my original post - ""I don't know much about this subject [finances]"". Well, that's why I came  here to ask a question. I don't know what ""trusted"" sources are in this field - it's not as if there are real scientific journals in this field as in biology (my profession). So... is this a problem in your view?" "Yes ROI is legitimate, in my opinion.  My old boss used to say 'change the paradigm' all the time though, and only used it when someone came to him with a problem and he didn't want to deal with it.  ""Bob, we have a problem with XYZ""  ""No no no, change the paradigm.  This is an opportunity for you to shine.  Go get em!""  Maybe my experience with a horrible, horrible boss that abused a lot of these phrases and thought he was Jack Welch's long lost son just made me bitter any time I see marketing bullshit. :)" Thanks for the tip, I hope I don't get banned -- I got approval from the moderators before posting here!   The reason we're posting here and not just in SurveyResearch is because (a) we think this may be fun/interesting to users on this board, and we're happy to share the results, and (b) we specifically need participants who have some interest or experience in finance or investing. So the MS analyst wasn't acting independently of MS's role as underwriter when he revised his earnings estimates?   MS is a big place.  I guess I just assumed that someone could be on one end saying something, with other parts of the company blissfully unaware.  All without a conspiracy to commit fraud.  Good to know.   Perhaps you can point - for those of us ignorant in finance - to the rules or laws that were broken here. "Ok, I stand corrected. Still... those papers are quite away from my field of expertise and I don't want to lose a lot of time learning all the financial lingo. I asked an easy question: ""Is this [the everything bubble] a thing or not?"" It seems that it's not, but I still wanted to know more about it." "I know I replied in another section of this tread as well, but are you looking at MS/Smith Barney, trowe advisory planning, or directly within their mutual fund equity research? The reason I ask is because often there is a misunderstanding between Financial Advisory (FA) work and working directly within a fund doing equity research (Equity Analyst).  People often think FA's do a lot of research, and they do, but you'll effectively blackball yourself from **ever** entering research because there's a ""sales-person"" stigma attached to being an FA." Expecting accurate accounting in a war-zone is unrealistic. Money is used to buy loyality that would be lost if it got out that they had accepted infidel invader's money. Secrets are a characteristic of all wars.  Expecting accurate accounting in a wallstreet investment firm is completely reasonable. I'm really sorry, but what do you mean by ISM? I googled it but found nothing.. Thanks!  Anyway, the WF product is really good indeed. Maybe we (r/finance) could start a weekly report too, quoting major reports like this one, and make some comments/analysis. That could be interesting don't you think? It would take quite some time but I think this sub lacks something like this.