Forget Due Diligence, Just See If You Can Pronounce It
from the what-passes-for-investing-these-days dept
It does often seem like people buy and sell stocks for reasons that have little to do with the fundamentals of what they're investing in -- but even with that in mind it's a bit surprising to hear that the ease of pronouncing the company's name or stock symbol can often lead to more investment in their stock. Basically, the report suggests, there's a psychological impact where people feel more comfortable buying stock when they can easily state the name. The impact is most noticeable right after an IPO -- which often seems to be the time when the least amount of rationality is used in making investment decisions. Perhaps the reason Vonage had such a weak IPO was that some people were confused over whether it was pronounced "voh-nage" or "vah-nage." Now we just need someone to start a mutual or hedge fund based on this tidbit of info.
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Vonage, said like phone-age
I've seen this sort of thing happen with companies in the past, Nokia being the most noticable. (When I first did dealings with the company, I was working with nokia employees in switzerland, who were coming down to visit from finland, so I believe that they knew how to pronounce it)
Nokia was pronounced nok-ia with a long o. After I came back to the US in the mid 90s, the US presence was being referred to as no-kia.
the spelling all looks the same, but the emphasis going from the front to the back, and where the k was connected has always made the second way I learned seem to jump out as me as wrong.
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ownage
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Pronounce that.
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Re: Pronounce that.
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Re: Re: Pronounce that.
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Re: Pronounce that.
It's funny how substandard college education is in the U.S.
Speaking of which... It's "it's" not "its" and the word "substandard" is not spelled with a hyphen.
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Re: Re: Pronounce that.
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UK Vonage TV Ads
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Pownage
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Fromage?
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Pronounce it?
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RE: Pronounce it?
Yes, it does. However, they would readily buy stock from a company named "Worthless".
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