Not going to say anything bad about brokers. Chances are I...

Not going to say anything bad about brokers. Chances are I probably have mutual friends with this westpac broker too. Overall they're probably good at their job and know what they're doing, otherwise they'd get fired. The finance industry isn't very forgiving.

But you should also realise what a broker's role is. They're sell-side firms, they basically sell advice and ask you to trade through their firm for commission/fees. Brokers will focus on stocks that get a lot of volume (hence more profits) which is why not many look at small caps. They also don't buy the stocks themselves, they're just selling advice.

If a buy-side analyst told me to get away from this stock I would seriously consider it. A hedge fund lives and dies by the absolute profit it makes. They don't sell advice, they make money off the advice (or their own research).