Dog And Pony Show

  

In ye olden days (okay, not that old, but still), dog and pony shows literally had dogs and ponies, probably doing tricks and having petting zoo moments. The name stuck, but the dogs and ponies changed to financial securities, up for sale no doubt.

Dog and pony shows can have a wider meaning, referring in general to road shows that showcase products and have presentations...like a big "hey, you need to buy this!" conference. In the financial sector, a dog and pony show refers mostly to companies ripe with an IPO, a.k.a. an initial public offering.

If you don’t know what an IPO is, it’s okay, we’ve all been there at one point or another. The TL;DR of an IPO is that it’s when a private company is offering shares (investment opportunity instruments) to the public for the first time. This gives the company more money they need to grow (and some flashy PR with executives strutting their stuff), and gives investors a chance to get in early on an up-and-coming company. A dog and pony show can make or break a company’s success in getting investors on board long after it’s over.

Road shows (in the finance sector) are also a great way for financial people to mingle, mingle, mingle. Think: brokers, investors, analysts, and even fund managers.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is a road show?4 Views

00:00

Finance a la shmoop... what is a roadshow? think about the rhymes IPO Roadshow....

00:14

but the two terms are lines from a sweet sweet poem if you're an investment banker as part [Poem of investment banking book appears]

00:20

of your firms job you'll take management of whatever company is going public or

00:24

raising capital in whatever form on what is called a roadshow, they'll go on the

00:31

road traveling all over the country and all around the world like they're a

00:35

vaudeville act singing crazy songs and showing men in dresses and wearing hats [Man in a pink dress and a blonde wig]

00:41

that was a thing back then that was entertainment sorry, just keeping it

00:44

real with the sales people banging a drum [Boy walking in the woods banging a drum]

00:46

about how awesome this new hair growth formula is they'll attract investors on

00:52

their Roadshow from all over the country maybe all over the world and they'll

00:55

point out how much need there is for hair around the world..

01:01

Yeah and they'll also bang a [Dwayne Johnson appears from a door]

01:05

tambourine and sing about how much the stock could go up next the next few

01:09

years yeah they'll do that and there's a PowerPoint presentation deck on this

01:13

road show lots of numbers traded among financial analysts for stock brokers and

01:18

money managers analysts to all chew on and that Roadshow continues almost like [Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump on stage]

01:23

an election with a final tally on the day the shares are placed and the cash

01:27

changes hands and a new public company is born...

01:31

let's just hope someone remembered to you know pack the diapers

Up Next

Finance: What is an Interstate Offering?
0 Views

An interstate offering refers to a company offering of stocks or securities sold in more than one state. Unfortunately, that doesn't apply to diffe...

Finance: What is a Rights Offering?
6 Views

Rights offerings are essentially hostile takeover defenses. Unfortunately, they're not as cool as swords and shields.

Finance: What is a primary offering, and what are Primary Shares?
29 Views

A primary offering is just an IPO - the initial public offering of a given stock. Primary shares are the shares of that stock that are sold... publ...

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)