9 Comments
 

I don’t treat the banks differently in terms of if it is GS I ask them to do one thing and if it is BMO I ask them to do something different.

The biggest difference in how I treat bankers is based on their seniority. I expect VPs and MDs to know their shit and to be on top of things. I shouldn’t have to hold their hands. For associates and analysts, I will take the time they need to understand what I am asking of them. I will give them the real deadlines instead of just saying get this done for us or some variation of that. I get being an analyst or associate sucks. I have no problem trying to make their job a little easier. I have much less patience to do that with VPs and MDs

 

Each sell-side typically has their use. If you use them a lot, you'll quickly find out that some of them have the best company contacts but terrible research, some of them will have good industry data, some are good investing people, etc. 

Typically, BB sell-side analysts are slightly better than MM, but this is a rule of thumb and not always the case. 

 

Adding to this...each analyst has made their mark (hopefully) by doing something really well. I used to work for an analyst who made her mark understanding every nuanced regulatory development as it related to inter and intra state pipeline approval. So if you needed to dissect a filing or continuance she was able to speak to what happened, what next steps are, and game out how it would look in the numbers. She was also completely incapable of forming a standalone opinion that differed from consensus so nobody read any of her previews, notes, etc. and definitely nobody asked for our models. 

 

This. Best advice I got is go to them for the details on the stuff the write about/do a lot of research on. Amazing how straightforward this should be and yet missed by many- more on the macro side but amazing on group calls when they get a political/legislative expert and yet someone will ask "so what's your inflation forecast based on that" and then they either say "uhh im a political analyst and don't forecast inflation" or give a bs answer. In this example it'd be someone asking the regulatory expert details on hard catalysts, variant perception on key drivers etc or asking a model junkie deep questions on the regulatory process. Get to know who does what well...very unusual to go to the same analyst for everything on a name and while there are a few rockstars out there always good to get some variety.

 

Not really, for micro, small or some mid cap stocks middle market can be much better because the stocks are too small for the BBs to care but it is often the MM analysts bread and butter. Literally at a bulge bracket in ER we put a sell on the two smallest names in our coverage with one mostly being because it was small and our client base didn't care (sell thesis was very weak in my view)  

Also yes different sell-side analysts are better at different things and some are good at certain stocks so it just differs. Even within bulge brackets etc. I think UBS for example with such a large Wealth management focus tends to have better research than say a banking driven firm like Goldman on average.  

 
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