New Pricing for Nasdaq stocks
Biznews, June 12, 2001.
Following up on the success of decimal quotes, the Nasdaq market will begin a pilot program of quoting stock prices in negative numbers. A group of 30 CLECs and B2C stocks has been selected to test the concept. If it is succesful, it could be expanded to many other sectors. A spokesman for the exchange said, "over the last several years, investors have had a difficult time pricing stocks accurately. Given that there are so many stocks on our exchange with permanently negative cash flows, we feel that negative stock prices will give investors the flexibility and tools they need, so prices can reflect realistic business conditions."
In a related development, there are unconfirmed reports that several companies are considering introducing negative dividends. An officer at Amazon said, "this is really just an extension of the longterm trend toward lower dividends. At some point, perhaps this century, Amazon will be making profits that are currently unimaginable. But, until then, we have a need for financing. Investors, we feel, have proven that they are willing to pay now for profits in the distant future. Right now, we have some critical financing needs, which could be solved if all our shareholders sent us two or three pennies every quarter, for every share of AMZN they hold."
Next week, we explore the concept of proforma earnings using imaginary numbers. |
