Thirty five years ago, when I started getting interest in shares I started modelling Broker recommendations (ie. following particular brokers did I do better than the market). In the end the amount of effort required was not justified by my investment (just starting in my career). I am now moving toward more dedicated investment. I would suggest the approach of modelling recommendations is certainly a valid approach; and it would be within expectation to find following some Brokers (or advisors) could lead to negative returns for reasons you alluded to.
However when I read comments that seem to have pseudo-information (i.e. seem to be informative but actually are not) warning bells should ring.
Having said that I am fairly sure Hot Copper has heaps of misinformation; so a particularly interesting project would be to model particular individuals and their recommendations and to determine which individuals are highly credible, and which are not.
I appreciate your comment.
DCN Price at posting:
60.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held