This study explores the phenomenon of rounding earnings numbers and the relationship between this phenomenon and insider ownership. Beyond the findings of previous studies, our results provide evidence that not only the first digit, but also the second and third digits are used as cognitive reference points for rounding earnings numbers. Another major contribution of this study is that, in comparing negative earnings to positive earnings and firms with higher levels of insider ownership to firms with lower levels of insider ownership, in the latter situations in all the cases above, earnings numbers have more information value for shareholders and are more relevant to managers’ self-interests; therefore, the phenomenon of rounding earnings numbers up is more common.