Recent research has shown that many financial analysts are often inaccurate when forecasting company profits. Typically they tend to be over optimistic about prospects, although some can be very pessimistic and significantly underestimate actual results. Much depends on the individual analyst’s general approach, with some being bolder than others. It has been shown, however, that more accurate forecast could be produced if analysts applied the average company profits increase across the whole economy to each company proportion to its market share