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The Long-Term Stock Exchange Opens for Business

blog.ltse.com

171–180 of 561 posts

Re: The Long-Term Stock Exchange Opens for Business

#171

Congratulations. "We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us." -- Winston Churchill Though I barely understand such things, I'm very excited by your LTSE and Katsuyama's Investors Exchange (IEX). Listening to your interviews about LTSE, my takeaway is that your goal is to allow companies to be judged on their own merits, instead of someone else's. So one side effect may be to help migrate private equity funded…

Thanks for the kind words

Re: The Long-Term Stock Exchange Opens for Business

#172
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We require companies that list with us to adopt corporate governance that aligns their behavior and incentives to the long term. I know that doesn’t sound super sexy but we believe this is a high-leverage point for reforms We will have more to say on reforms that relate to reading in the future, but we don’t limit the ability of “tourists” to trade in and out of stocks as normal.

>We require companies that list with us to adopt corporate governance that aligns their behavior and incentives to the long term. I've heard many a company say one thing and act another. How will this be different? Will delisting be the repercussion of short termism?

Yes, all of our standards are enforceable, that’s part of the responsibility of being an SRO. When a company makes promises as part of listing on LTSE, the public can believe them

Re: The Long-Term Stock Exchange Opens for Business

#173
post #169
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We require companies that list with us to adopt corporate governance that aligns their behavior and incentives to the long term. I know that doesn’t sound super sexy but we believe this is a high-leverage point for reforms We will have more to say on reforms that relate to reading in the future, but we don’t limit the ability of “tourists” to trade in and out of stocks as normal.

What does that mean concretely? Will earnings reports still be quarterly? I guess I'm trying to figure out why the exchange has to do anything here. There's plenty of investors and companies that think long term with BRK and its investors being the most prominent. Digging a bit more, on the investor side, there are value investors who look for solid, if unspectacular businesses at a price point and buy and hold over…

I’m not quite sure how to answer your question. Clearly there are long-term investors and companies in today’s markets. I think there would be more of them if they had a platform conducive to their philosophy.

Re: The Long-Term Stock Exchange Opens for Business

#174
post #161
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We will endeavor not to list such companies

> We require companies that list with us to adopt corporate governance that aligns their behavior and incentives to the long term. How will you handle companies that eventually go against the required guidelines? Could a company become permanently unlisted? And how would that affect any shareholders of the company who purchased through LTSE?

Yes, we have the power to delist companies, although I hope it never comes to that.

Shareholders would have their ownership protected in that scenario (as they still own common shares), same as any other company who was delisted from an exchange

Re: The Long-Term Stock Exchange Opens for Business

#175
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the problems with the regular stock market is that valuations are not tied to the future cashflow of the company. This isn’t how the LTSE works but it would be awesome if there was an exchange that required every company to pay a fixed percentage of their cash flows every year after X years. Combined this with a minimum holding period, and I dare people to bid $300+ for Tesla stock :)

The old Dutch joint stock trading companies were required by their charters to liquidate and return all capital to investors every couple of years. That enforces strict discipline on management. However after a few decades of that owners began to trust managers enough that a permanently capitalized enterprise seemed more efficient. The development of modern financial capitalism is important and fascinating. These str…

Fascinating. Do you have any suggested books or videos that track the history of finance?

Re: The Long-Term Stock Exchange Opens for Business

#176
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think buybacks have occasional legitimate uses, but there’s a reason that they were considered basically illegal not that long ago I think if companies are sincere in their desire to use buybacks only for good purposes, they should commit to report “EPS net of buybacks”

Aligning executive compensation with shareholder interests would also help. Stock options incentivize executives to buy back shares (boost the price, do a buy back, exercise options).

Yes, compensation reforms are a key part of making this work. All sides need to come together for mutual gain, if we want to build better companies

Re: The Long-Term Stock Exchange Opens for Business

#177
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you can do both. Trades happen through stock brokers as with any other exchange. You can track the exchange’s daily trading volume here: https://markets.cboe.com/us/equities/market_share/ The listing application (and attendant legal docs) is here: https://longtermstockexchange.com/listings/documents/

Is there a publicly available list of companies that are listed on the LTSE?

Not yet

Re: The Long-Term Stock Exchange Opens for Business

#179
It's pretty awesome.

Which was harder - building a stock exchange, or getting someone to read a whole book?

With the benefit of hindsight, which of the following would you say is the biggest predictor of growth in equities prices: everything else, greater buying, less selling, brand, liquidity, or previous prices?

Re: The Long-Term Stock Exchange Opens for Business

#180
post #102

I have a question: what exactly is different? Wasn't clear in the blog post. Do you prevent day-trading or something similar?

We require companies that list with us to adopt corporate governance that aligns their behavior and incentives to the long term. I know that doesn’t sound super sexy but we believe this is a high-leverage point for reforms We will have more to say on reforms that relate to reading in the future, but we don’t limit the ability of “tourists” to trade in and out of stocks as normal.

Given that companies like Uber, which are not only unprofitable but don't even have a clear path to profitability at any time horizon, trade at fairly high valuations, what's the basis for the belief that investors are irrationally focused on short-term results? Should Uber actually trade at higher valuations than it does today? Why isn't some rational subset of investors capitalizing on this opportunity?
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