An unpublished opinion within the investing circles about a company’s earnings announcement. In other words, it is an unofficial expectation of what a company would announce about its earnings in an upcoming news release. In reality, whisper numbers do differ from market forecasts officially published by analysts and experts. Traders typically react to the whisper, and act accordingly, even before official forecasts are published.

Notwithstanding the potential discrepancies between whisper numbers and official forecasts, market prices, at times, get impacted by the whisper number, following its main direction. In general, whisper numbers may faithfully match or may substantially contrast with analyst estimates, depending on the sources of the unpublished opinion.