another n00b post...listened to my 1st conference call.

[ski]

Listened to TASRs 2nd Q call.

OK, I really have no background here, please take it easy...

I'm trying to understand how much BS is going on here, the management seemed honest and answered negative resonses to a lot of questions, however tasr's stock went way up again during trading pre opening (will see where it opens very soon)

I met a guy on a plane whos boss was the CFO for a corporation, he said his sole job was too keep the stock price from experiencing any unexpected drops, by keeping the shareholders informed.

I assume it depends on the corporation, but how much weight do you give to forward looking statements?

How much legal protection is there for investors here?

[hawk59]

Conference calls are unimportant IMO, apart from helping to get an idea of what kind of management you are dealing with. If they give precise guidance and seem like they try very hard to meet or exceed that guidance then that is a bad management team, if they ignore the quarterly eps game and focus on long term value creation then that is a good management team. Also, if the CFO of a company really spends all his time trying to prevent the stock price from dropping then he is a waste of time and a waste of whatever they are paying him, if the stock price experiences a very large decline it's going to be caused by something completely out of his hands, or may not be caused by anything at all.

[pig4bill]

Legal protection? None.

I disagree that cc's are unimportant, especially if they are taking questions from shareholders or good analysts that aren't kiss-asses cover it. I learned important info that isn't in the 10Q from cc's. On TASR, it's hard to say. It's mostly considered a joke on Wall Street now, so it may not get any good coverage these days.