Are Shorts forecasts accurate? gnus_hound used to be a forensic accountant for a big 8 firm, like Arthur Anderson. He did not work on it, but his office did. He is what he posted at Yahoo.
M6, you bet your bottom dollar on IB VETTING. In my old days, I was involved in many an S-1 raising capital and the IB's vet every word and really scrutinize every forward looking statement and forecast. They can be tougher than the SEC. They make sure material stuff is disclosed and what is there can be justified. They are afraid of being sued if any deal doesn't work out for the investor.
They also require what's called a Comfort Letter. The accounting firm has to give them a CL that tells them they have sourced item by item to the appropriate record, document, etc. I've written many a CL in my life.
For example, if they say they issued X warrants on Y date to Z, the IB might want you to go in and say you verified that information to the companies "warrant ledger" and to a copy of the warrant agreement, etc. Our firm could charge as much as $200,000 to $250,000 to do the work on an S-1 if it had been a while since that client did on and the SEC review process was an extended back and forth.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
