The Upshot: Why Abby Cohen Doesn't Follow the Nasdaq

Yep, when Cohen talks, people still listen.

Already there's been a good deal of ink and airtime devoted to the decision this morning by Goldman Sachs chief equity strategist Abby Joseph Cohen's decision to boost the stock position in her model portfolio. It had all the hallmarks of the classic Abby call, the kind of thing that cemented her reputation as the most closely watched strategist on Wall Street.

Throughout the latter half of the '90s, in times of strife, Cohen would get on her firm's squawk box and soothe the market's nerves. She was steadfast in her bullishness, and some complained that she was a stopped clock, but she was also right. And then, late last March, Cohen dropped the equity weighting in her model portfolio to 65% from 70%. Even though her outlook remained bullish, that she took money off the table said volumes.

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So it's not for nothing that as news of Cohen's decision to boost equities back up to 70% this morning made the rounds, the futures market went from red to green. It's not surprising that, despite a host of negative news, stocks managed to end in the green. Abby had put her imprimatur on the past two days rally, called the bottom. Who are we mere mortals to disagree?

Yet investors may be forgetting another call that came out of Goldman this fall. On Oct. 3, Cohen professed that the time had come to buy technology, saying that lower prices had eased her concerns about valuations. In conjunction with the tech's-gotten-cheap call, Goldman's technology analysts offered up six stocks they thought investors should buy: Cisco (CSCO), EMC (EMC), Network Appliance (NTAP), Juniper Networks (JNPR), BEA Systems (BEAS) and Oracle (ORCL). Since then, those stocks have fallen -- get this -- between 53% and 77%.

There may have been better places to put your money.

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