Friday, October 4, 2013

Twitter And Efficient Markets

We like to think that the stock market is always efficient, but there are events that prove our belief wrong. Twitter's IPO will likely be hot, with huge investor demand. The company already announced that the stock would trade under the ticker TWTR, but it seems that many investors can't wait for the IPO. Today, the stock of Tweeter Home Entertainment Group (TWTRQ) exploded, rising by more than 1,500 percent before falling back to a gain of only about 670 percent. TWTRQ filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy about 6 years ago, and although the stock is still listed on the OTC market, the company has very little upside. The explanation for the jump in price today is investor confusion about the ticker symbol. We hope that the twits trading TWTRQ didn't tweet to their friends about the great investment that they had just made.