What are outliers in the Member Sentiment data?

When you look at the Member Sentiment data, you might see some studies that have forecasts that are much higher or lower than the others. We call these studies outliers.

By default, the CoreSSG and SSGPlus applications automatically remove outliers when you open the tab. You can choose to include those outliers in the statistics by clicking the Include Outliers button at the top of the page.

If you want to remove single outliers, you can do so by unchecking the studies in the Recent Studies table at the bottom of the page. This will update the statistics panel and histogram to exclude the outlier forecasts from the calculations.

In other words, outliers in Member Sentiment data are studies that have forecasts outside the typical range entered by BetterInvesting members for the selected stock. Removing outliers can help you get a more focused picture of the stock's potential performance.

Related article: What is Member Sentiment?
Related article: What is an outlier in the Stock Selection Guide® (SSG®) data?

Statistical explanation AKA 'What is the algorithm to remove outliers?'

The outlier studies in Member Sentiment are identified using the following process:

  1. Generate the mean and standard deviation for the sales growth forecast %. Identify any study with a Z-score greater than 2 or less than -2 in the sales growth forecast data as an outlier study.
  2. Generate the mean and standard deviation for the earnings growth forecast %. Identify any study with a Z-score greater than 2 or less than -2 in the earnings growth forecast data as an outlier study.
  3. Repeat for all columns of data
  4. Calculate mean, median, range and standard deviation for all studies that have not been identified as an outlier study.
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