WITH INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS

suddenly treating stock research churned out by big Wall Street securities firms like junk mail, you'd think so-called independent stock-analysis firms would be rushing to fill the void. Think again.

An informal survey of independent firms research firms or brokerages that don't do any corporate investment-banking business turned up fewer than a dozen that actively market their research reports to individual investors. Meanwhile, officials at a number of highly regarded independent firms, such as Ford Investor Services, Egan-Jones Ratings and Ned Davis Research, told us they have no plans to start selling their prized company reports to individual investors anytime soon.

In some respects, Main Street's need for independent stock analysis has never been greater. The investigation by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer into potential conflicts of interest between investment banking and stock research at the nation's biggest securities firms is undermining what little credibility Wall Street analysts have left. Spitzer's release of internal email messages from Merrill Lynch analysts ridiculing the companies they were recommending cast considerable doubt on Wall Street's ability to deliver objective stock advice. The controversy is likely to grow in the coming months following news on Thursday that the Securities and Exchange Commission is launching an investigation of its own.

Some industry experts worry that the fallout from the investigations will make investors even more leery of jumping back into individual stocks. "An argument can be made that the individual investor will be out for longer than expected because of all the wealth destruction and the loss of credibility for the [Wall Street] firms,'' says Peter Nerby, a vice president at Moody's Investors Service and a securities-firm analyst. "We've said quite publicly that this investigation is a serious issue for the industry.'' (Moody's is a corporate credit-rating agency that doesn't do any stock or bond underwriting, and its analysts are prohibited from owning stocks of companies they cover).

But for ordinary investors who are still playing the equities game, objective stock research is more important than ever. Unfortunately, one of the few places that had been providing that sort of information Jaywalk seems to be moving in a different direction. Jaywalk, a Web-based service that sells research reports and ranks stock recommendations from 15 independent research firms, is planning to shift its focus to institutional investors, says John Meserve, president of the Bank of New York subsidiary that purchased Jaywalk last month. "We are very much trying to gear this to the institutional marketplace," says Meserve. "If it's good research, people will be willing to pay for it.'' (Translation: Jaywalk's subscription fees, which can range from as low as $5 to several thousand dollars a year depending on the type of service and information requested, will be going up.)

For most independents, the reasons for eschewing the individual investor boil down to simple economics: They can make much more money selling their products to institutional investors, who don't find annual research tabs in the tens of thousand of dollars prohibitively expensive. Other independents voice concern about being sued by individual investors if a stock they recommend later plummets. "Individuals have a tendency to be litigious,'' says Richard Williams, managing director of Summit Analytic Partners, a small research firm that covers the software industry.

You can't blame the independents for seeking fatter revenues. It's especially tough to eke out a living catering to mom-and-pop investors who are used to getting stock research from their brokers either free or for a small fee. "I think investors are still reluctant to shell out dollars for research," says John Eade, president of Argus Research, one of the biggest and oldest independent stock research firms that sells reports to individual investors. "That's a bridge that has to be crossed."

For a list of independent firms that cater to individual investors, click here

Yet there are a few places industrious investors can turn to for free objective stock analysis. For starters, many independent research firms post free reports about market trends and a handful of big company stocks on their Web sites. Ford Investor Services, which has been selling research reports to institutional investors for more than 30 years, often posts newsletters on its Web site several weeks after they've been delivered to customers. This isn't much help for momentum investors, of course, but for individual investors with longer-term horizons, these reports can be useful.

One of the better places investors can turn to for free information is Investars, a Web-based service that rates the performances and predictions of analysts working at more than 150 Wall Street firms majors and independents alike. While Investars charges $19.95 a month for access to its proprietary rating and ranking service, it also permits investors to generate free statistical reports showing where a Wall Street firm's stock picks rank by sector.

But despite this smattering of low- or no-cost research, the bottom line for Main Street investors looking for objective stock analysis is this: There's no such thing as a free lunch on Wall Street.