Does a rescheduled conference call generally mean “something's wrong” with a company?
Does the market automatically assume a rescheduled call means something major, like the auditors aren't signing the financials, is going on? Yes. (If so, why?) People - including investors - are emotional. And suspicious. And paranoid. Financial discussions tend to make everything sound like a cold, clinical science, and to some degree that is true. But you should never look past something much more simple - people are people. And of course, once all is said and done, acts like a reschedule often do mean something is up. So you've now got a nice mix of fact and emotion.   Does it mean that 95% of the shares' holders are insiders who all decided to sell when they learned about whatever is causing the delay in the con call? No. See Littleadv's answer. Insiders (those who are aware of non-public material information, not necessarily employees) are the ones who actually cannot sell once they learned about whatever, by law. Martha Stewart went to jail for that. Any such deviation from the norm triggers abnormal response and avalanche of rumors, so by default investors assume something bad and try to minimize the loss. When dealing with a tiny company (market cap of less than 15M) with a tiny market volume (6.2M), the swings can be very significant. For such a small company, it is safe to assume that something happened that lead them to delay the conference call, and since they didn't tell what happen, investors assume the worst. It might end up as the CEO and CFO having bad stomach after celebrating 100% growth in revenue they were going to announce, but you'll have to wait and see....
the financial information is generally filed via SEDAR (Canada) or SEC (US) before the conference call with the investment community.  This can take before either before the market opens or after the market closes.  The information is generally distribute to the various newswire service and company website at the same time the filing is made with SEDAR/SEC. "In general, ""billed amounts"" don't mean a whole lot, since if the provider has a contract with the insurance company (usually called ""in-network""), the insurance company picks what the rates are that the treatment ""should"" cost, and how that cost gets allocated between what the insurance company pays and what the patient pays. Due to that contract, the insurance company and provider should agree on how much the patient owes, and one shouldn't pay a provider more than what the insurance company says you should. On the other hand, some insurance plans have a level of ""out of network"" coverage. In that case, the insurance company has its same sense of what the treatment ""should"" cost, but is really only concerned with paying its share. The EOB then should show how much they pay, but will generally show the full ""billed amount"" minus their payment as the amount the patient owes. That is, since there's no contract between the provider and the insurance company, the insurance company has no way to stop the provider from ""balance billing"" you for whatever they want beyond the amount that the insurance is paying, since any payment amount is purely a transaction between you and the provider. In general (as with anything involving large amounts of money), it's best to get all you can in writing. The provider should be able to provide you with a statement showing zero remaining due, and including both any payment you've made to them and any payments made by the insurance company. It may take a while for the payment from the insurance company to be processed, and until it does there may be something on the statement showing ""estimated amount to be paid by insurance"", which isn't as comforting as one showing ""actual amount paid by insurance"" and ""zero due""." &gt;Not sad but evil. Who am I to assign a dollar value to your life, your hopes, your dreams, your happiness? Who is anyone else?  Yes, you are right, to a point. Thinking of everyone in terms of their utility can lead to extreme evil.  I am responsible not only for those around me but also to my future generation. It is my responsibility that the future generation finds the world a bit better than it was when I came in existence. The world does not exist for me but I exist for the world. Like everything in the world, there is an upper bound to the value added by every organism, including myself. We can ignore it, similar to how climate deniers ignore global warming, fundamentalists ignore evolution and other fundamentalists deny the holocaust but that does not mean it is not reality.  Even if I am not a utilitarian, I am still a person for whom the future is as important as the past and the present and it is my duty to think of them and to do what I believe is right for them. I will be right sometimes and wrong in other instances but it is my responsibility to try. For me, it is evil to not think of making life better for my children, just because I was scared of being called evil and closed my eyes.  Finally, I leave you with this - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203918304577243321242833962.html I agree with some of them, but these lists always fail to mention how important cash is. It's why up and coming billion dollar companies give away large stakes. Have solid cash reserves ready to be used can get you out of any tight jam you may be in. Whether it's paying somebody to fix something for you or covering an unexpected expense.  Cash is one of the Kings in the business world.  Other thing is that networking is a big one. I go to conferences when they are coordinated locally and have met a handful of solid people that way. I agree with you. I have a standing offer to all my meeting attendees that they can just read the docs and comment via email, or give me their status and issues in an email and skip the meetings.  Of the dozens of people on my teams, none take me up on it. It's crazy. "In Second Opinion's opinion, they say ""Do not initiate new position.""  This means do not buy the stock if you do not already own it.   Since they also say to hold if you do own it, this is a very ""who knows what it will do"" neutral position (IMO)." In practical terms, it shouldn't.  Market cap changes every day (assuming public trading, of course) or even second-by-second, and focusing on investor sentiment toward your company's stock is not the wisest way to make strategic decisions. That being said, company execs do need to be mindful of unusual swings in their company's share prices because it can sometimes be an indicator of news/information of which they're unaware.  At the same time, you can't just disregard your shareholders, especially the big institutional players who may have large voting blocks with which to replace you if they feel you're not responsive to events.  They are the ones who make strategic decisions based on your company's share price, right? (grin) The issue around swings in market cap is more about public perception than reality, so it is important for companies to have a good public relations strategy ready to go that can address questions/concerns in case of some market event.  After all, consumers who hear that a company's share price has suddenly fallen by, say, 30% might be more hesitant to do business with that company because there's a (perhaps irrational) fear the company's not doing well and may not be around much longer. Investors are, by their very nature, emotional rather than rational.  Any kind of news can cause a stampede toward or away from a stock for no reason that an investment professional could ever explain.  That's why it's impossible to spend any real time focusing on market cap (leave that to your P.R. department to worry about). IF, as a company executive, you focus on doing the right things to make your company successful then any questions/concerns about market cap will resolve themselves. Good luck! I would look on http://seekingalpha.com/currents/earnings. You can also get copies of the conference calls for each company you are looking at. What you referred to is the conference call. The people who usually ask questions are professional analysts. I would recommend getting the transcript as it is easier to highlight and keep records of. I hope that helps