One should distinguish between being an analyst And being an investor. Analyst get paid based on how Smart they sound, investors by how much money They ACTUALY make... you hope a sell side analyst Is well connected, talks to alot of people, etc. therefore Is privy to more info than most. however the QUALITY of The analysis of that information and the phsycolgical make up of the Analyst isnt necesserly better then the avg joe. And in most cases worse...