It is generally not possible to predict a stock's return in advance. One technique that is sometimes used to estimate the return is for the analyst to envision a few plausible future conditions $("$states of nature"$)$ and to estimate probabilities of occurrence and average return associated with each case. For example, one might envision future prospects for Disney for the coming year as follows:

$\backslash$table$[[$Economic conditions $("$states of nature"$),\backslash$table$[[$Estimated$],[$probability$]],\backslash$table$[[$Estimated$],[$Return$]]],[$Depression$,1\%,-80\%$