Preannouncement

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. A preannouncement occurs when a company or individual announces something either prior to the time that they do it or prior to the time that they would normally announce it. Preannouncements can take the form of a press release, filing a form with the government, a conference call, or a webcast. The most common use of the term in the U.S. investing community is for a statement about earnings that are materially different from the expectation of financial analysts or from prior guidance given by the company. These preannouncements seem to have become more frequent in the U.S. since the effective date of Regulation FD. On average, they are made about 20 calendar days before the scheduled announcement or Earnings Call. There are now usually a few hundred such preannouncements every quarter. The period during which preannouncements tend to be made is sometimes called the "confessional season" because so many of them are bad news.