I should add that I don't normally comment on anything short-term, but it seems fairly obvious to me that an upside on Intel would be a huge boost to the stock.

Indeed, Nehalem is a force to be reckoned with and it is driving a new surge of Intel-based hardware sales. Maybe more importantly... the time when INTC's success was tied to MSFT is now a distant, distant memory. Linux Nehalem boxes are amazing! (In 2017, we'll look back on this comment and laugh.)

When the earnings came out yesterday I was perusing Marketwatch's comment board on the article, and people were pointing out that just 30 days ago analysts had expected .43 / share. Then they dropped it to .30 / share and then INTC reported .40 and it was supposedly a great beat. But what reasons did these Wall St. analysts have for lowering their estimates so much not very long before the release?

I really should stay out of short-term trading, it's not what I'm good at. You can say that the earnings upside was already priced into the stock, but at a forward P/E of (now) 9 or 10, I don't believe that.

BTW, you guys totally need a discussion forum.

I'm going to include a link, so that this comment doesn't show up on the front page:
http://www.prooftrader.com/

ah yes, the forum issue. We've discussed it quite a bit here at the ProofTrader offices at the global headquarters.

On one hand, there's a tendency to want to discuss articles in a forum format.

On the other, it's better for your article to have comments, which will draw more people directly to it.

Another point against forums is that they do not promote the "accountability" aspect of PT. In some ways, the drek of message boards is why we exist.

We may need forums some day, but right now we're working on the concept of a "reply coverage." That is, if you write a long enough comment on someone else's article, you'll be able to click a button and turn it into a coverage, of course with a new price target.

And, eventually you will only be able to "agree" or "disagree" with an article, not both.

Keep an eye on the site in the next week or two, as some big changes are coming to the ProofConsole!

Yeah I like the idea of a view of the site that is comment-centric (an extended full page version of the home page 'recent talk'), but I like that all comments are tied to a coverage. It's part of the idea of the discourse being structured around stocks and predictions and not being totally off the cuff like Yahoo Finance message boards.

It's sad that this is so popular, given that it was intended to be a quick hit. IRL, at least you wouldn't have lost much money being wrong (-1.5%) but it was a good try anyway. I think INTC definitely hits your target some time soon, even if not in a 1-2 day timeframe.

Live and learn. IBM is selling on the news now too. I may put some effort into learning the ins-and-outs of short-term speculative trading, but it seems like weird science to me.