Full of Bull (Updated Edition): Unscramble Wall Street Doubletalk to Protect and Build Your Portfolio

by Stephen T. McClellan

“Only Stephen McClellan could have written this book. As a senior statesman of industry analysts, Steve has worked in the inner circles of Wall Street for over thirty years. When Steve talks, everyone in the industry listens. This book is like a college extension course for investors, and it’s taught by the Dean.” –H. Ross Perot, Sr., Founder, Electronic Data Systems, Founder, Former Chairman, Perot Systems “Steve McClellan has drawn on an insider’s lifetime view of how Wall Street really works to produce a practical and entertaining book of advice for investors. Whether you are a new or experienced investor you’ll get something valuable out of it, including more than a few chuckles.” –Charles O. Rossotti, Former Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service “Steve McClellan’s Full of Bull provides a long overdue insight into the confusing maze of Wall Street analysis and stock recommendations. This book exposes The Street’s ‘insider code’ and provides both a cautionary tale and an indispensable guide into the Byzantine world of investment analysis.” –Thomas M. Siebel, Founder, Siebel Systems, Chairman, First Virtual Group “Steve McClellan is one of the smartest guys in the investment industry. For years his research helped investors figure out how to get better returns. Now he’s collected a career’s worth of observations and conclusions about how Wall Street works and how to avoid the mistakes that cost ordinary people millions–no, billions–of dollars everyday. Read this book and have more money for your retirement.’’ –Doron Levin, Columnist, Bloomberg News “Today the typical share is held much less than a year, usually by an institution, speculator, or insider whose gains are at the expense of the under-informed or misinformed individual investor. Securities analysts are of little help. With his 30+ years of relevant experience, Steve McClellan tells you why and how to better protect yourself if you’re an individual investor.” –Josh W. Weston, Former Chairman, Automatic Data Processing Discover the truth about stock analysts’ research. The Truth About Wall Street Stock Research–Now 100% Updated for Today’s Markets! They mislead. They confuse. You can’t afford to listen to one word stock analysts say–especially not right now. Wall Street won’t tell you how to protect your capital or steer you toward gains. The Street is good at selling, not analyzing; it wants you to trade, not invest. In Full of Bull , one of the Street’s leading insiders reveals the hidden code behind Wall Street’s Byzantine practices. For decades, Stephen McClellan was one of the Street’s top analysts–he knows exactly how the game is played. Now, in this revised guide for the individual investor, he describes how Wall Street came to cost investors billions by denying the realities of a market collapse in progress. He explains how a congenitally favorable bias led brokerages to keep recommending stocks, such as AIG and Fannie Mae, up until the moment of their ultimate demise. In Full of Bull , you’ll learn how to look for analysts’ favoritism and blind spots; how to react appropriately to upgrades, downgrades, and price targets; and how to recognize what company announcements really mean. Drawing on his immense body of experience analyzing top companies, McClellan shows you how to systematically evaluate a company’s prospects and choose investments based on principles that work. This is exactly the kind of objective, focused guidance you won’t be getting from your broker!

Genres: Nonfiction, Business

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 10, 2007

Reviews

[Lauren]

This book left me feeling disappointed and unenlightened. If there was any useful insight for making an investment decision, it was lost in disorganized structure and too many tangential stories. Most of the book is dedicated to the description of the life of a wall street insider. The rest is a biographical account of some of his experiences that don't help convey his message. When he does manage to get on subject, his ideas are vague, repetitive and inconsistent. Which made it extremely hard to read, I had to force myself to finish it out of principle! If you ignore the inconsistencies and repetition the book can be reduced to; Do your own research when making investment decisions and don’t believe analysts upgrades/downgrades because analyst are easily swayed and corruptible.

[Marcus Goncalves]

The title is full of hype and misleading. Most of the book describes the life of Wall St analysts, its hypes, and perils. As a layman, I did not find anything I did not already know.

[Wayne]

Both the book seems to have an identity crisis and the author is very contradictory. The author doesn't seem to know what type of book he is trying to write. He claims it's about how to cut through the BS of Wall Street and understand the subtle messages etc. However, half the time it is a biographical account of some of his experiences that are tangental to the subject and don't really help to get the message over.

When he does manage to stay on topic his message is presented in a very choppy style with small pieces of information that are hard to string together and makes the book awkward to get into. There are also many occasions where he seems to contradict himself. For example, he comments on how management that hold briefing and analyst conferences in flashy places and spend plenty of money are a very suspect sign. However, he later talks of how he would hold conferences at lush Florida resorts and his were one of the best in the business!

Overall I think the author has a message that he set out to deliver, but it is lost in choppy structure and too many digressions. Even after reading the last page of the book I reverted back to the original premise that he sets out in the introduction and still can't decide if he actually answered it all. He is obviously attempting to portray his oppinions, but some just seem to be rather shallow. Another example, when discussing good traits in an executive of a company he comments that he would expect them to start work prior to 7:30am and stay until after 6pm. In the very next sentence he claims that their golf game should also be average at best. Although it's easy to dig out the point he is trying to make that he doesn't want a CEO who spends all his time of the golf course, this is typical of the way he presents his message and comes off bad.

Unless you have a very strong interest in most things related to Wall Street this definitely wouldn't be a book I'd recommend.

[Erik]

Good book if you're new to the market. If you're new to the market, and are feeling a bit naive. Stephen McClellan wrights about how to interpet what analyst are really saying about a stock. ( not one of the best writen books I've read )