Talking Numbers: Technical Versus Fundamental Recommendations H/T George Pearkes Doron Avramov, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Guy Kaplanski, Bar-Ilan University, Israel Haim Levy The Hebrew University of Jerusalem This version: August 20, 2015 Abstract: This study assesses the economic value of technical and fundamental recommendations simultaneously featured on “Talking Numbers,” a CNBC and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) joint broadcast. Technicians display stock-picking skills, while fundamentalists reveal no value. In particular, technicians overwhelmingly outperform fundamentalists in predicting returns over horizons of three to nine months and moreover they produce large alpha with respect to the Fama and French (1993) and momentum benchmarks. Considering market indexes, Treasuries, commodities, and various equity indexes, both schools of recommendation generate poor forecasts. Overall, the evidence shows that proprietary trading rules could, at best, enhance investments in single stocks, while returns on broader assets are unpredictable. Talking Numbers: Technical Versus Fundamental Recommendations - Introduction This paper employs a novel dataset from “Talking Numbers” to assess the economic value of technical and fundamental recommendations covering a comprehensive list of assets. Hosted by CNBC and Yahoo Finance, “Talking Numbers” is a media broadcast simultaneously featuring fundamental and technical recommendations before and during the... More