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SEC Pauses Zoom Technologies Trading Because People Think It's Zoom Video (cnbc.com) 44

The Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading of Zoom Technologies on Thursday, partly because investors are confusing it with Zoom Video, which has seen a surge share price due to COVID-19. It will resume trading April 9. From a report: Zoom Video, which provides videoconferencing services and trades under the ticker symbol "ZM," is a key component for many businesses shifting to remote work during the coronavirus pandemic. That's led to the company, which went public last year, to see a surge in users and stock price rise of more than 112% this year so far -- a rarity in the current coronavirus-induced down market. It's now got a market cap north of $40 billion. However, traders have also bid up the much smaller Zoom Technologies, which has the ticker symbol "ZOOM." Its stock is up more than 50% this month and nearly 900% this year. The company has not disclosed financial information since 2015, the SEC says.
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SEC Pauses Zoom Technologies Trading Because People Think It's Zoom Video

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  • Dang SEC.. They ruin everything..

    • How dare the SEC interfere with the great gawd PROFIT.

      Also the Libertarian shouts of "The suckers deserve to lose their shirts for being ignorant about Zoom!"

      So much for the jokes, but if this is how the SEC feels, why is it okay that the stock market is surging (at least for the last three days) on speculations about which companies are going to be worth more as a result of eager sucking at the government teat called "Covid-19 crisis relief legislation".

      Me thinks they doth party too soon. Much too soon bec

  • by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Thursday March 26, 2020 @12:10PM (#59873820) Homepage Journal

    My Zoom Telephonics 28.8 modem was completely rock solid, after disappointing results with the USR Courier 14.4. I believe they even put out a firmware release to upgrade it to 33.6.

    Now I'm using them for video conferencing? Stellar.

    • by antdude ( 79039 )

      I remember using its 2400 internal dial-up modems!

      • 2400 baud? You were lucky! I had to collect sand from my kid's sandbox, manufacture it into silicon wafers in my garage just so I could build a 110 baud modem on a circuit board to hardwire it into my phone system!
  • by AlanObject ( 3603453 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @12:18PM (#59873850)

    If it turns out I don't know what I am doing I don't think the casino would refund my money.

    Shouldn't you at least be responsible for checking out the stock symbol you are placing a buy/sell order with? That is why stock symbols exist, after all.

    • by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

      If it turns out I don't know what I am doing I don't think the casino would refund my money. Shouldn't you at least be responsible for checking out the stock symbol you are placing a buy/sell order with? That is why stock symbols exist, after all.

      I'm suspect that only a tiny minority of people are investing based on a confusion about which company it is. I bet a larger group are investing because they wish to take advantage of the first group. And I bet a much larger group is investing because they've seen the stock price go up due to actions of the second group, and want to get on the train.

      In other words, a bubble.

      Yes I think the SEC, acting purely for its own self-interest, will want to act to restrain bubbles.

      • by Pascoea ( 968200 )

        And I bet a much larger group is investing because they've seen the stock price go up due to actions of the second group, and want to get on the train.

        And the constituency of group 2 and group 3 are 99% model driven automated trading.

    • by guruevi ( 827432 )

      The problem is (as always) short trades. It's not people, but algorithms that do the guessing, they find a thing about Zoom in the media that's positive and instantly start trading based on some buggy text matching. The problem with those trades is that when Zoom Technologies starts trading up and then an article comes out about "all the dumb people trading in the wrong Zoom", the algorithm will correct, plunging the stock and taking the company with it.

      The SEC should just stop trading short term during cri

    • The objective to prevent bad information from flooding the market. Markets run on information and right now there's is bad information in the volume of Zoom Technologies being traded so it's going to distort the market.

  • by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @12:23PM (#59873870)

    There is a lot stock purchases not based on facts or reading the balance sheets, but just from good feelings. Being on the whole the stock market rises, if you have a lot of money to spend, you are going to make a lot of money. You go out thinking you are this super smart trader, where you are just a dummy tacking on to a normal trend.

    I see plenty of people giving me stock advice. Go with GM it offers good Dividends and it is a stable company, Go with Tesla they are truly a disruptive company, and get in now while they are lower.

    The general rule of thumb, if you are young go with risker stock, when you are older go with safer stock. And not so much about the detail of any one stock, unless the company is really crashing hard.

    • The general rule of thumb, if you are young go with risker stock, when you are older go with safer stock.

      That's slightly more practical than "If you want to make money, go with the stock that will go up!"

      Enron was considered safe enough for pensions.

    • ZM is picking up a huge amount of business now which will most likely continue as companies pay the annual fees for it after the crisis is over

      • My company is using it now as we're all remote, but I suspect we'll drop them when this is all over and management determines that all of engineering must work in the office at all times because, reasons...
        • Until management realizes they can slash their real estate costs by having everyone work from home.

          • by afidel ( 530433 )

            I would be so happy if that happened. I could work from my trailer most of the time and leave work for the great outdoors. I haven't physically touched a system I work on in the nearly 5 years I've been with my current employer, the closest production hardware to me is nearly 150 miles away. If we can work from home for a month or two of lockdown then there's little reason we can't do it continuously.

    • There is a lot stock purchases not based on facts or reading the balance sheets, but just from good feelings.

      What's wrong with that? Managing your life that way can lead you to the presidency.

    • by shanen ( 462549 )

      The modern stock market is completely divorced from fundamental analysis and trading on REAL value. It's all about delusional technical analysis.

      In other words, I bet my software is better at finding the suckers than your software so my computer snaps up those shares a few microseconds before your computer can.

    • It's worse then that. A lot of trading is based on what good feelings people may be having in the future.

    • You're not wrong. Also ...

      If you're a fan of Elon Musk and you want to own $1,000 of Tesla just because you want to, that's cool. Or a few bucks in a company that you think will do well, that's fine.

      Generally, the value of "good companies" is already priced into the price of the stock. You aren't going to pick specific companies better than the people who study a few specific companies full-time. The price you pay for the stock reflects if the professional analysts think the company will do well. So it's a

  • "Who's Zoomin' Who?"

    --Aretha Franklin

  • Why punish the people that know it isn't the company behind zoom, but rather specifically bought in *because* dumb people/algorithms would drive the price up? That's easily as valid as any other reason to invest.
  • Especially when it comes to investing money.
  • by ebrandsberg ( 75344 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @12:53PM (#59873972)

    In 2000, I worked for a company that went public, and was a highly anticipated IPO. The symbol was not the most obvious symbol for this companie's name, as that one was already taken. One of the founders anticipated that many people would buy the wrong one, and bought many shares of the other company. A few days later, he drove up in a Ferrari, despite still being in his own companie's blackout period (where people working for the company can't trade).

    • by dissy ( 172727 )

      That fits the definition of insider trading.

      I'm curious if that is legal insider trading or illegal insider trading?
      Obviously any trading choices on his own companies stock would be dubious, but since it was for the other companies stock I wonder how many hops away that is, or needs to be, to not be considered 'non public information'.

      Also just to be said, I am not accusing, I'm just asking, as I honestly don't know these sorts of legal details.

      • Here's one source for a definition of insider trading [investopedia.com], and based on my reading of this it depends on when he made the purchase. If he purchased the other company's stock before information about his company's IPO was made public, then IMHO it's illegal. OTOH, if his company had already announced that they were going public and what ticker symbol they would be trading under then I don't think it meets the legal definition of insider trading. Of course, IANAL, let alone a lawyer specializing in this area

  • From the summary: "The company has not disclosed financial information since 2015, the SEC says." If a company on the exchange hasn't disclosed financial information since 2015, why are they still even ON the exchange?
    • by afidel ( 530433 )

      Good question since they're obviously in violation of a bunch of SEC regulations for publicly traded companies.

  • For a long time there was an old Southern railroad called the Seaboard Air Line. Toward the end of its life the stock moved in response not to news about railroads, but about aviation:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • It seems unfair to Zoom to "pause" their trades because traders are stupid.

  • Must be the very first time.

  • So you're saying people blindly click in E-Trade without even confirming they're putting their money on the right company? I am shocked. Truly shocked.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by phalse phace ( 454635 ) on Thursday March 26, 2020 @02:21PM (#59874388)

    The same thing happened right before Zoom's (ZM) IPO. Traders were buying up Zoom Technologies before ZM even started trading

    Zoom Technologies soared 56,000% in the past 30 days — as unrelated Zoom Video prepared its IPO [marketwatch.com]

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