Wall Street Scam Watch

If you were listening in on Apple's earnings call last week, on Jan. 29 at 5 p.m. ET, you would have heard Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook himself say:

"We generated record December quarter services revenue in Greater China, fueled by an amazing ecosystem with over 2.5 million registered iOS developers. We saw very strong results from our wearables business there with revenues up over 50%. We also continued to grow our total active installed base by adding new customers."

Here's the plain English translation, or what the "pros" listening in heard: "Get your broker on the horn now! Don't miss the ride; AAPL's gonna gap much higher before the opening bell tomorrow, and it's not looking back!"

What's more, there's potent "profit mojo" hidden in the top and bottom line numbers in a really dense, data-heavy earnings report like Apple's. Getting a good, early read on it can mean the difference between flat returns and a nice fast double-digit gain.

On the other hand, if the numbers are bad (or if, as happens often, corporate accounting is "overly creative") you'll want to know ASAP so you can change your position and skip out on the slide lower when the selling starts.

My friend and colleague, Bill Patalon – the "World's Greatest Stock Picker" – has been through thousands and thousands of these earnings reports, back to front, throughout his decades-long career.

And best of all, he's been there to make the right call on them for his Private Briefing subscribers, too, delivering 217 peak double- and triple-digit winners.