Valtrend - Butler Business Valuation

The Madness of Crowds: Or at Least the Median of Crowds

Estimize is an online start-up that aggregates earnings estimates from its participants.  Participants are investors hoping to prove themselves. 

For example, 115 participants estimated that Apple’s first quarterly earnings would be $11.68/share.  While the company actually reported $12.30/share, Estimize did much better than the Street whose consensus figure was only $10.02.

This was not Estimize’s only prediction that was better than the Street’s.  And, of course, this may just be another form of the whisper numbers we hear so much about – which also seem to frequently beat the Street.  In summary, make sure you use the right crowd – or have the courage to not be in a crowd at all and sell when others are buying and buy when others are selling.

Leave a Reply