Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimers

H. Scott Asay and Jeffrey Hales have authored a paper, "Disclaiming the Future:  Investigating the Impact of Cautionary Disclaimers on Investor Judgments Before and After Experiencing Economic Loss," which reviews how disclaimers about forward-looking statements affect investor judgments.  The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, or PSLRA, provided protections to issuers against claims that forward-looking statements were misleading if such statements were identified and accompanied by meaningful cautionary statements.  The authors consider whether such disclaimers protect nonprofessional, or retail, investors by reducing their reliance on forward-looking statements.  Through a series of experiments, the authors conclude that indeed such disclaimers do reduce the participants' explicit reliance on the forward-looking statements, however, the presence of such statements does not serve to reduce the valuation assessments made by the investors.  The authors