"That is one reason American investors rely so much on quarterly reports."

Gateway wants investors to rely on it to tell them what is important in their numbers.

Investors in public companies rely on audits to sleep at night.

None of this would matter if investors relied on 10-Q's rather than news releases for investment information.

Investors relied upon this understanding when buying and selling shares.

It is to assure that the numbers investors rely on are absolutely accurate.

The reason: These investors, who often tend to be older, frequently rely on the dividend to live.

Investors will do their own analysis and rely more heavily on work done by independent research shops, the study predicted.

"Investors shouldn't rely only on accountants and regulators," he said.

Nevertheless, most investors rely heavily on track records to select funds.