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Gold/Mining/Energy : Microforum (MCF:TSE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Garry who wrote (2295)	5/25/1999 9:01:00 PM
From: swot	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3896

Has anyone on this thread used a program called ChartSmart? And, if so, can you post what you think of it? Also, if there are other preferred stock tracking/charting programs on the market, I'd like to hear about them. I'm trying to choose a program for my personal investment use. Thanks Marty

To: Garry who wrote (2295)	5/26/1999 12:17:00 AM
From: lib	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3896

Zacks is a research company with info supplied by some 200 analysts in North America. Most of these analysts are spread throughout the U.S. (my estimation 95%). It is surprising to see MCF even ranked given this biased ratio. Zacks rates stocks primarily according to their earnings per share, p/e's and growth potential. With that said, why would MSFT be ranked 63rd on that list?

To: Garry who wrote (2295)	5/26/1999 12:55:00 AM
From: doby	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3896

Garry, Here's an explanation from Stockhouse thanks to poster SDupont. The reason why MCF is ranked so high (8 out of 251, biz.yahoo.com is that the only analyst on record gave a strong buy recommendation. The way the ranking system works is that each recommendation is translated in a 'scrore': Strong Buy = 1 Moderate Buy = 2 Hold = 3 Moderate Sell = 4 Strong Sell = 5 Of course the lower the score, the better! The compagny are sorted by their average recommendation. In the case of MCF, the average is pretty easy to compute: a single strong buy recommendation which translate into an average recommendation of 1.00! If you look at the top of the list, you'll see that THQ inc. sits there with 5 strong buy recommendation. Its average recommendation is still 1.00 but since five analysts gave strong buy recommendation it is ranked higher than MCF with its single analyst. If you take a look at Microsoft, ranked 63 out of 251. you'll see that it has: 15 Strong Buy 13 Moderate Buy 3 Hold The average recommendation of these 30 analysts is 1.56 which is lower than MCF. Any compagny getting something else than 'Strong Buy's' will be ranked lower than MCF, but it DOES NOT mean it's not a great compagny. Please be very care when looking at the ranking because this simple system does not take into account the number of analyst. It is not because an analyst of the underwritter the last IPO issued a 'Strong Buy' that you found the next Microsoft! Note: I don't think we can get the name of the contributing analysts for each compagny. If there is a way, please tell us. Would be nice to know if the analysts really know what they are talking about or if the 'Strong Buy' comes from Mr. NoName who has nothing else to do. Its always nice to see your investments with 'Strong buy' recommendations but please don't base your investment decisions on one or two unknown analysts. Live Long and Prosper! SDupont