Good old Merrill

Merrill Lynch has done it again. They will now require all their analysis to rate at least 20% of the their companies they follow the equivalent of a sell recommendation. That is about four times the average. They will also limit the buy recommendations to 70% of the companies, while neutral rated stocks won't exceed 30%.

What if the stocks the analyst covers falls outside that guideline? Does the analyst then lie? Does he fudge the ratings? Why would Merrill do this? What is their underlying reason?

Tomorrow we will see.