Best groups list for ER

I'm interested in this also.

Healthcare is a pretty good sector to be in, specifically in Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences. FIG is also another big one.

it depends on what has the biggest cap - pharma is the best sector but you usually need specialized knowledge in that field.

II rankings is no indication of which group is the "best" - each sector gets its own rankings.

When picking the sector that you want to go into (if you have a choice), choose one that you have an affinity for - love shopping? go for luxury goods. Alcoholic? Beverages. Fat? Food producers.

Of course, the above was written somewhat tongue in cheek but you have to think about what you are going to bring to party - schmoozing the CFO to give you the next quarters earnings doesn't cut it anymore.

We only have one pharma position in the hedge fund because we don't think we have any way to gain an edge in a drug's efficacy, side-effects or potential market - so all we've got is pipeline and everyone has that.

Personally, I think retail and industrials are two solid sectors. Easy to get your head around. Not alot of technical jibberish to cloud an otherwise insightful and interesting report.

The 2007 ranking of firms by WSJ according to the number of analysts in it who got Best On The Street award. Websites are entered by me.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pVBJu0wcXIKyLBSaVLMjmag&hl=en_US

yelllaaa-hoo-hoooooo

"Best On The Street" is just another way of saying II-ranking.

All of these rankings are basically glorified popularity contests. To get the true picture, you need to see the individual investors' broker reviews and comments which they use to calculate the commissions that they pay to each house - but you aren't going to see these until you are already in the industry.

Even when you've worked out who is a good analyst, that's no guarantee that they'll be a good boss or teacher.

btw, save any investor comments that you get from well-known clients as they will come in very handy when you want to move.

I am just starting a job next week in equity research and welcome advice on how to make the best possible transition.

What will be important things to focus on? Is it expected that I should have a fair number of questions? What are things to avoid? What time do normal equity research departments leave at night - 9 or 10 pm? Do they work weekends?