Hammer

The hammer is a guy who shepherds pigs from the farm to the breakfast plate. He's also called the grand slammer or, in France, Le Grande Royale (if you're a Pulp Fiction fan).

In finance, however, the hammer is the sellside stock brokerage analyst whose opinion is most trusted in a given stock. She's also called The Axe (no relation to body spray).

When the hammer downgrades a stock, it usually plummets, as they dance in gold leafings, mumbling about the stock which used to be heavily bought in the mid $40s: "Can't touch this."

See: Whisper Number.

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