>That may be Charlie's point and I know that is my perception of the issue. Make what you can now and the heck with tomorrow.

I think Charlie's point may have been that it may be necessary to cook the books temporarily to keep the shareholders around. Kind of like when I say that Phase I of my project is complete, and in the demo, I gloss over the part that isn't < g >.

>There seems to be a drive or reason to always do better. If your profit is off by 1 cent a share for a quarter the value of your stock can fall greatly as has happened many times. Sometimes profits can be higher than expected and the value of the stock falls anyway. The stock market is a sick place.

When a profit is off by 1 cent, and the stock falls, maybe the smart investor will see it as a time to buy. Yes, on a day-to-day basis, stocks rise and fall for no apparent reason. Moral of the story: get in for the long-run.