Upgrades and Downgrades

If you have traded for long, you have had a stock that is rocking along very nicely, making good gains and then all of the sudden, one day it is down 4% and you cant find any news on it. Chances are some analyst has downgraded it and you find out about it a couple days later. These upgrades and downgrades are important in the short term. Think a couple weeks ago when CSCO was making new highs and in one 24 hour period, three major analysts downgraded it. It went from a close of 29.92 to a low of 26.25 in the next three days and nothing happened but the fact that three analysts decided to downgrade it. In the long run, these changes are not as important, witness CSCO's recent rally back to the mid 28 range, but in the short run they inflict pain.

One site I have found to track these analysts opinion changes is at http://hedgefundmgr.blogspot.com/

It is called Between the Hedges. On the right hand side there is a table entitled Daily Action Table...worth checking to see what analysts are saying about your stocks.