Pretty funny how quickly the herd behavior shifts. Not so long ago a paper was published in the Journal of Finance if I remember correctly showing abnormal returns for firms that added a dot come to their name during the bubble. Here's one showing how the pattern reversed... Not sure how tradable this is though. _________________________________________________________________ "The Game of the Name: Valuation Effects of Name Changes in a Market Downturn" BY: PANAMBUR RAGHAVENDRA RAU Purdue University, Krannert Graduate School of Management AJAY PATEL Babcock Graduate School of Management Wake Forest University Wayne Calloway School of Business and Accountancy AJAY KHORANA Georgia Institute of Technology Dupree College of Management MICHAEL J. COOPER Purdue University, Krannert School of Management IGOR OSOBOV Purdue University Krannert Graduate School of Management Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection: http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=375820 Paper ID: Purdue University Working Paper Date: January 2003 Contact: PANAMBUR RAGHAVENDRA RAU Email: Mailto:RAU@MGMT.PURDUE.EDU Postal: Purdue University, Krannert Graduate School of Management 1310 Krannert Building West Lafayette, IN 47907-1310 UNITED STATES Phone: 765-494-4488 Fax: 765-494-9658 Co-Auth: AJAY PATEL Email: Mailto:AJAY.PATEL@MBA.WFU.EDU Postal: Babcock Graduate School of Management Wake Forest University P.O. Box 7659 Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7659 UNITED STATES Co-Auth: AJAY KHORANA Email: Mailto:ajay.khorana@mgt.gatech.edu Postal: Georgia Institute of Technology Dupree College of Management Rm. 437 755 Ferst Drive Atlanta, GA 30332-0250 UNITED STATES Co-Auth: MICHAEL J. COOPER Email: Mailto:MCOOPER@MGMT.PURDUE.EDU Postal: Purdue University, Krannert School of Management Krannert School of Management 1310 Krannert Building West Lafayette, IN 47907-1310 UNITED STATES Co-Auth: IGOR OSOBOV Email: Mailto:Osobov@mgmt.purdue.edu Postal: Purdue University Krannert Graduate School of Management 1310 Krannert Building West Lafayette, IN 47907-1310 UNITED STATES ABSTRACT: We investigate stock price reactions to Internet related name changes in a market downturn. In contrast to the Internet boom period, during which there was a surge of dot.com additions, in the bust period, there is a dramatic reduction in the pace of dot.com additions accompanied by a rapid increase in dot.com name deletions. Following the Internet "crash" of mid-2000, investors react positively to name changes for firms that remove dot.com from their name. This dot.com deletion effect produces cumulative abnormal returns on the order of 70 percent for the sixty days surrounding the announcement day. Thus, our results add support to a growing body of literature that documents that investors are potentially influenced by cosmetic effects. Keywords: Behavioral Finance, Dotcom bubble, Managerial Timing, Gaming Behavior, Market Efficiency, Anomalies, Name Changes JEL Classification: G12, G14