Abstract: Investors’perceived type and level of investment risk are important for their investment decisions. Using the sample of A-share companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges，whose first unqualified audit opinions are issued with highlighted special notes from 2008 to 2014，we examine the risk type and level that investors perceive from audit opinions through event study method and regression analysis. Our results show that investors can identify the risk due to strategic operations in audit opinions.  According to the companies’actual operating conditions，the risk due to strategic operations is further subdivided into the risks due to continuous operations and earnings management，both of which can be effectively distinguished by investors. In addition，we find that the inability of the capital market to differentiate between the risk due to strategic operations and that due to potential material misstatements cannot be attributed to investors’lack of rationality and judgements，but to the risk due to earnings management. 

Keywords：audit opinions；highlighted special notes；risk signal