ER Etiquette: Research Report Access

I have a mentor in AM (research veteran, we'll call him Ned Stark) who's helping me prep for sell-side equity research recruiting the best he knows how. Besides sage advice, I get access to TONS of sell-side research, which is awesome. When it comes to interviews, if I get interviews, I'm in a fortunate enough position that I can get my hands on the interviewing analyst's work prior to an interview to study up on.

My question: Is disclosing this information to an interviewer, or anyone else for that matter, without an explicit go-ahead from Ned a big no-no? I obviously don't have direct access to these reports and a lot of them basically say "don't share this." I think anyone in my position who has the opportunity to get research takes it, but is this a "never reveal your source" sort of thing or is it more of a "don't talk about it period" sort of thing?

Trying to avoid breaking any etiquette rules or awkward moments. Figured an anonymous forum is probably the best place to ask this.

Thanks in advance.

 

Similar question here, but from someone who works in ER perspective.

Is sharing reports with someone who doesn't have direct access to it, i.e. students, okay? Some reports like JPM's clearly said we can't redistribute it...

Fortes fortuna adiuvat.
 

I disagree on some of that... as I said in my post, most of the revenue comes from trading commissions and banking fees (indirectly), not the sale of the reports. I would also say that most of the reports don't have "privileged info," they're usually commoditized earnings recaps...

But yes, agree on the conclusion -- you probably won't be penalized for sending them around to a friend.

 
Best Response

No reason to bring it up, so I would just not say it.

Senior analysts don't really care about their reports and who has access to it. Very little revenue comes from the sale of those reports. What they really care about is their reputation among their clients (buy side) and the senior management of companies because they are the ones generating the majority of the revenue through trade commissions or banking fees. So I should be a bit more specific --- senior analysts care about their reports, but only in the sense that they are a form of mass communication and can influence their target audience to then generate revenue through other ways.

As an associate, I would get requests for research or information from students all the time. I would choose to answer or send them a report based on how I was feeling at the time and did not have to run it by my analyst.

 
cob5:

No reason to bring it up, so I would just not say it.

Senior analysts don't really care about their reports and who has access to it. Very little revenue comes from the sale of those reports. What they really care about is their reputation among their clients (buy side) and the senior management of companies because they are the ones generating the majority of the revenue through trade commissions or banking fees. So I should be a bit more specific --- senior analysts care about their reports, but only in the sense that they are a form of mass communication and can influence their target audience to then generate revenue through other ways.

As an associate, I would get requests for research or information from students all the time. I would choose to answer or send them a report based on how I was feeling at the time and did not have to run it by my analyst.

This.

Also, sometimes I'll get a call or an email from a retail investor and if I'm in a good mood and it's a slow day, I will shoot over a recent note.

One time I got a call from some grandpa asking why his retirement account was down 8% (because one of my coverage names was down 8% that day). I said "why do you have all your money invested in one stock old man?" He hung up. He was funny. I miss him.

Under my tutelage, you will grow from boys to men. From men into gladiators. And from gladiators into SWANSONS.
 

yeah I doubt if it would come up. A lot of universities (particularly those with a b-school) have access to a bloomberg terminal for students, so you could always hide behind that. My general sense is if a student is asking me for some research I will usually give them a few examples, because I don't want to penalize the (usually non-target school) kids for not going to a school with a terminal. If they're willing to do the homework to try to break in than they should have the same opportunity from a resource perspective as the kids at the top targets.

 

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