In this paper, we compare First Call analyst forecasts to unofficial forecasts of quarterly earnings per share commonly referred to as whisper forecasts. Our analysis yields the following results. First, we find that whispers are, on average, more accurate than First Call forecasts and are...

The purpose of the paper is to compare unofficial forecasts of earnings known as quot;whispersquot; to forecasts generated by First Call analysts. Our sample consists of approximately 900 whispers found primarily on message boards on investor web sites between 1995 and 1997. Our analysis yields...

We study the way in which SEC restrictions on fund manager compensation affect portfolio choice when investors buy into funds whose recent performance has been good. We find that fund managers choose riskier portfolios than they would if there were no contracting restrictions and that these...