There is a structural bias in published research toward always having a view. A report that concludes 'we are not confident either way' feels like a failure to deliver, so the incentive is to manufacture a position. That incentive produces a great deal of low-quality conviction.
In practice, a meaningful share of companies are genuinely outside any given analyst's circle of competence, or are at a point in their history where the outcome depends on something unknowable — a court ruling, a clinical result, a regulatory approval. Assigning a confident view to a coin flip does not make it less of a coin flip.
Declining to take a position costs nothing. Unlike a fund manager measured against a benchmark, an individual investor has no obligation to hold an opinion on every company. The universe of public companies is enormous; passing on the ones that are genuinely opaque is free.
We would rather publish a shorter list we can defend than a longer one padded with names we do not understand. Where our answer is that the evidence does not support a confident view, that is what the research will say.
Disclaimer: J.J Stock Research publishes general market research and educational content. Nothing on this site is personalised investment advice, an offer to buy or sell any security, or a guarantee of any result. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal.