Market timing using strategists’ and analysts’ forecasts of S&P 500 earnings per share
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1016/S1057-0810(00)00061-5Keywords:
Performance, Earnings forecasts, Market timingAbstract
This paper examines the bias in and usefulness of top-down and bottom-up consensus forecasts of earnings per share for the S&P 500 Index provided by market strategists and analysts to I/B/E/S. These forecasts exhibit a significant optimism bias that decreases over the 12 months up to release of actual earnings per share. The bias is significantly more pronounced for the bottom-up forecasts of analysts. Unlike the findings for country timing, we demonstrate that a stock market timer using switching rules based on the consensus forecasts of S&P 500 earnings or the directional switch in the consensus or in the number of switchers cannot generate a free lunch. © 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
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