My ability to be honest is protected by...

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I recently heard someone who has been on Wall Street for twenty years as an analyst telling a young person aspiring to work there, "As an analyst, my ability to be honest is protected by the SEC." What he meant was that if not for the "Chinese Wall" that the SEC enforces between trading and analysis, the traders would force the analysts to act as mere shills for whatever securities they were trying to move.

Can you imagine that: someone who works for private industry, asserting that they would be forced to lie (or retire) if it wasn't for government regulations that allow them to write honest analysis!

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