EARNINGS SURPRISES

ThomsonOne is probably the most used source by analysts for earnings surprises. Or Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Or Zacks (I've never used it myself, though, so I would like to know how good is it).

For the uninitiated, let's first throw light on what what are 'surprises'.

Basically, brokerages come out with estimates on Companies' quarterly / annual earnings - and when we average all these forecasts, we come to a figure that we call 'consensus'. Now, when Companies posts their earnings, their numbers are either in line with consensus, or miss consensus (lower than expectations) or beat consensus (above the predicted figures).

An interesting piece of information I stumbled upon at Musings on Markets was spectacular - that just prior to Companies making earnings announcements, price movements tend to gain momentum in the direction of what should be the most obvious post-result movement.

 

Source: http://aswathdamodaran.blogspot.in/2012/07/earnings-surprises-price-reaction-and.html

Insider trading is a fact of life. Charts and numbers shout out loud.

Cheers,

AJ