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Technology Stocks : THQ,Inc. (THQI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sigmund who wrote (6225)	6/20/1998 5:22:00 PM
From: Jeff Bond	Respond to of 14266

>>Maybe the concept of an industry PE really doesn't make much sense. I would rather see a distribution of the PE's.<< Winner, you are exactly correct. Averages, medians, and the sort are merely an over simplification of a complex distribution. This is true in almost all cases, as exemplified by the statement : "THQI investors, on average, are better investors than the general population". It sure matters which way the price curve is moving when you make this statement. It also shows just how careful you have to be when using averages to analyze a set or series of numbers. The poor guy who looked at THQI when it was going down for the ten days after earnings were released would have falsely concluded that "on average" THQI looked like a bad investment. Give him the sample set from the prior year though, and the picture would have taken on a whole different flavor :o) Averages are flawed because they force you to establish criteria (sample size, granularity, frequency, etc.) which all work to introduce noise into the equation, and they measure the PAST. Sample distributions will ALWAYS more accurately reflect a general population, and provide more meaningful results. Like we sometimes are prone to forget, it is an analog world in which we live; the best efforts to model it are alway based on continuous measures. Did I mention SMTC is an analog company bound to reap the rewards once the semiconductor industry turns around? :o) Regards, JB P.S. If you don't believe me, ask 32 people and calculate the "average" :o)