RE:HLND Well here's my thought on the situation.
the market is in extreme volatility right now. Large companies are reporting record earnings and the sp is doing nothing or even dropping.
so my theory is pretty simple. Settie sees this happening as everyone els does as well. So I'm going to guess that he gave each of his wholesalers a very long payment date. If he accepts the payments After January for any sales in Q1, he sets the company up for strong earnings in q2 and on. Effectively taking a hit in sp when the market is weak anyway. Why report strong earnings in a volatile weak market when we can set up for stronger earnings in the second half of the year when most analysts expect a market rebound.
this would make Sense for HLND as well, why close the biggest deal to date in a weak market when you stand to gain little from it.
just postpone the big deals, push any payments as far as you can into the next quarters, and line it all up with a major presentation at the jefferies.
makes sense to me.