Like most good ideas, the basic concept of using earning expectations data is simple. Equity prices are driven by expectations. The price is determined by the market's belief about the company's future economic flows to shareholders. The best way to approximate the market's beliefs is to poll the maximum number of qualified analysts taking advantage of their collective wisdom regarding earnings forecasts.

200 Analysts at Your Desk!

eTelemet puts the consensus forecasts from the premier source of earnings forecasts right on your desk.

Telemet chose I/B/E/S because of the speed of delivery, the comprehensive data, and their professionalism and experience.

On average, I/B/E/S reviews 50,000 forecasts daily and processes 3,000 changes worldwide. Their U.S. service covers 200 brokers and 4,400 companies. It's available, simply and easily on your eTelemet screen within seconds.

Telemet's I/B/E/S earnings estimate reports consist of four parts.

The first part contains the mean estimates, high, low, and number of estimates in the previous month that have increased, decreased and their mean percent change.

The second part shows estimate trends with the percent change in the mean estimate over the past week, month, and quarter, and the mean over the last six weeks.

The third part compares the year to year company's EPS change to the industry EPS change over the same period. Changes between the company and industry EPS and the S&P 500 EPS are also shown.

The fourth part shows the "'surprise history." The percent difference between actual and expected EPS over the previous eight quarters is shown. The spread in estimates and the "surprise score" are shown. Companies with low estimated EPS spreads but large differences between expected and actual EPS have large surprise scores.