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US SEC preparing to scrap quarterly reporting requirement

reuters.com

301–310 of 491 posts

Re: US SEC preparing to scrap quarterly reporting requirement

#301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The beauty of it, though, is that it would recover almost immediately as systems arbitrage an obviously stupid situation.

I'm extremely skeptical about this. 24/7 trading will definitely burn a lot of extra energy in datacenters, make some speculators a little richer, and make a LOT of retail investors nervous… But what actual real-world problem will it solve ? I for one am skeptical that more liquidity is always good. I think that having achieved $0.01 spreads, we're well-past the point of diminishing returns with high-frequency tradin…

Right? Why do we even need all-day trading?

I have seen a once-daily auction proposed, which seems like a sensible approach to me.

Re: US SEC preparing to scrap quarterly reporting requirement

#302
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hypothesize all dividends, no share value. How would that world look

that makes no sense. companies need capital, that's why there is a stock market. dividends are paid from past earnings, never capital (earnings are only a %age of the value of the capital) and not from higher expectations of the future.

In a perfect world… reality is different, however.

Plenty of companies take on debt to pay dividends, e.g. just before going public.

Re: US SEC preparing to scrap quarterly reporting requirement

#303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The beauty of it, though, is that it would recover almost immediately as systems arbitrage an obviously stupid situation.

I'm extremely skeptical about this. 24/7 trading will definitely burn a lot of extra energy in datacenters, make some speculators a little richer, and make a LOT of retail investors nervous… But what actual real-world problem will it solve ? I for one am skeptical that more liquidity is always good. I think that having achieved $0.01 spreads, we're well-past the point of diminishing returns with high-frequency tradin…

> But what actual real-world problem will it solve?

I know most Americans don't travel, but are you aware that timezones exist and there's an entire world outside the US that also invests in US companies?

Why do you think global companies want to list in US capital markets instead of their own? Being the world's most desirable capital markets is a massive boon for the US economy and 24/7 trading will only accelerate this trend.

Re: US SEC preparing to scrap quarterly reporting requirement

#304
post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, hard to imagine this crazy timeline where private capital rules the world. Totally inconceivable.

"It's not good so let's make it worse"

Cryptocurrencies everywhere.

Re: US SEC preparing to scrap quarterly reporting requirement

#305

One of my favorite stories about logistics and quarterly earnings deadlines (from when I worked at a pharmaceutical company: "In our business, a truckload of various drugs can easily reach $10-$15 million. Now, if that truck arrives at the depot at 11:59pm March 31st then it's first quarter earnings. If it arrives at 12:01am April 1st then it's second quarter earnings. $15 million is a BIG shortfall, even for us, so…

I don’t get it, why not just say “oh we were 15 million short that quarter and 15 million ahead this one so it’s all good”

Like why get hung up on these arbitrary cutoffs

Re: US SEC preparing to scrap quarterly reporting requirement

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well we’d go back to an era where private capital owns the world. The public would not be able to participate or benefit from the ownership of companies and share in the prosperity.

I mean the average person already barely has any participation at all, and certainly doesn't benefit from it when their money gets dumped down the toilet because of some widespread financial scams and grifts that repeatedly happen over and over again.

62% of adult Americans own stock.

Re: US SEC preparing to scrap quarterly reporting requirement

#307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you enumerate some examples of when it having less information is better than having more?

It’s a common complaint of value investors that boards (especially in this post-Sarbox world) are solely focused on quarterly earnings reports, to the detriment of long term strategy. One way to talk about the added and persistent value of some companies is to note that many of them have powerful, recalcitrant, or somehow anti-quarterly-cadence founders: buffet, zuck, you could make a list.

Delisting and going private is always an option if you want to go at your own pace and talk to your investors 1:1.

Re: US SEC preparing to scrap quarterly reporting requirement

#308
post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean the average person already barely has any participation at all, and certainly doesn't benefit from it when their money gets dumped down the toilet because of some widespread financial scams and grifts that repeatedly happen over and over again.

62% of adult Americans own stock.

And how many of those people are actively making decisions about what companies they are investing in instead of blindly putting money into a black box 401k account because they are financially punished for not doing so?

Re: US SEC preparing to scrap quarterly reporting requirement

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Help me understand what you are saying here. For those that don't know this one is "a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure". I'm not advocating for a single metric that can be gamed. A business is fundamentally about dollars in and dollars out. Maybe add receivables in there and a few other metrics from the P&L. I'm not trying to be prescriptive here on purely cash in and out. I do think there is…

Dollars/receivables in and dollars/deliverables out is just a question of rate, unless I'm missing something. If a 10 billion dollar company has a per-second dollar out/in rate of $1,000,000 due to actual organic business, a company with $2,000,000 can set up an LLC it buys and sells from, and legally 'swap' $1,000,000 a second back and forth in services "bought and sold" to mimic the appearance of the $10B company,…

Extreme? Almost every AI related stock is investing in companies that then buy their product, efectively just giving stuff for free in exchange for better quarterly numbers.

Re: US SEC preparing to scrap quarterly reporting requirement

#310
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's got to be one of these: FOB Shipping Point (or Origin): Responsibility transfers to the buyer as soon as the goods leave the seller's premises. You book it when it leaves your loading dock. FOB Destination: The seller retains risk and costs until the goods reach the buyer’s location. The sale doesn't happen until the asset transfer occurs. Before that any cash you get from the sale is balanced by the liability t…

You can account a transaction that's been placed but not fulfilled. I think when someone orders $15m of goods, you can immediately book $15m accounts receivable (asset) and $15m goods owed (liability) as soon as you have the expectation it will happen. If the transaction falls through, you delete them.

Under GAAP you cannot recognize revenue before the service is delivered or product is shipped. You can accrue revenue that is earned but not yet paid (if you are paid on Net 30, for example), but even if pre-paid you have to book that as deferred revenue, which is a liability (until you ship).
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