Have you ever wondered why some stocks skyrocket on a positive earnings surprise while others fall off a cliff? In this article we are going to tackle this little-understood issue. Better yet, I will share with you two ways to profit from earnings surprises. More on that later.

3 Reasons Stocks Can Drop After an Earnings Surprise

Estimates vs. Whisper Number: The standard definition of an earnings surprise is when actual earnings come in higher than earnings estimates. But those estimates are the “published" numbers from the brokerage analysts. Quite often investors tend to develop their own unique set of expectations based on sentiment, sometimes referred to as a “whisper number". If there is too much optimism ahead of the release, then actual earnings will need to be a blowout in order to appease the market’s inflated expectations. This is the most common reason why some stocks ...

Nothing better than waking up to a positive earnings surprise and big profits.

Nothing worse than waking up to an earnings miss and heavy losses in your portfolio.

Well, third-quarter earnings season is now kicking into full gear, and there are few things that move a stock faster, up or down, than an earnings announcement.

This is especially true now as investor expectations and stock prices are much higher. Companies that disappoint this earnings season will be crushed. This will lead to devastating losses for those unfortunate shareholders. However, the owners of stocks with positive surprises will be richly rewarded. Now is the perfect time to align your portfolio to profit in the month ahead.

As most of you already know, Zacks Investment Research specializes in the coverage of corporate earnings. And more importantly, how to profit from this information. So, today I'm going to share with you 3 proven strategies to profit

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