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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wyätt Gwyön who wrote (15166)	2/18/2002 9:22:19 AM
From: AC Flyer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

>>so i won't waste my time explaining to you anymore. you're on ignore, so don't bother insulting me anymore. have a good life<< It's amusing the way this "you're on ignore" thing is bandied about like some kind of sanction. "Ignore" is for fragile egos that can dish it out but can't take it. >>the headline numbers you see for SPX company earnings, like the first call analyst numbers, are based on pro forma estimates which do not include noncash charges. the pro forma or operating numbers are significantly higher than GAAP figures for more than 50% of SPX companies.<< Who is deceived by pro forma numbers now? Is there a US investor who doesn't understand that pro forma numbers are different to and usually better than GAAP numbers? First call may report companies' pro forma earnings projections, but who now doesn't understand that First Call is just a legitimate conduit for the face that companies wish to present to investors. Go all out and take the arduous and challenging step of opening the Wall Street Journal or IBD and the PEs you will see there are GAAP PEs. >>pro forma estimates which do not include noncash charges<< Pro forma numbers don't only exclude noncash charges (like depreciation and amortization). They can also exclude cash charges or expenses (like layoff and severance costs). Unlike GAAP, there is no such thing as a standard for pro forma numbers - pro forma numbers can be whatever the company concerned wishes to make them - usually however there is at least some pretext that the pro forma adjustments are non-recurring charges. >>this means the noncash writeoffs (and many cash writeoffs as well) do not occur in the pro forma numbers, which are "most of the PEs you hear about". i.e., it is all the bad stuff that gets written down against GAAP income.<< If pro forma PEs are "most of the PEs you hear about," then you are looking in the wrong places. >>one sign of a person doubting his own ability is that he tends to "fight dirty" in debates. i can only laugh.<< Laugh away. I asked you for JUST ONE EXAMPLE of a charge that appeared in the pro forma numbers but not in the GAAP numbers for any company and you failed to provide one. MM, in view of your disagreement with my point of view, I am now NOT placing you on ignore. I will also NOT summarily dismiss your point of view by wishing you a nice life.