because economic statistics can be poor predictors, some managers try to predict future economic activity by tracking business confidence. Business confidence indices show how confident managers are about future business growth. For example,the Conference Board's CEO confidence Index is a quarterly survey of 100 CEOs of large companies across a variety of different industries that examines attitudes regarding future growth . Another widely cited measure is the small business owners and managers to express their optimism (or pessimism)about future business sales and prospects, Managers often prefer business confidence indices to economic statistics bucause they know that other managers make business decisions that are in line with their expectations concerning the economy's future