> The idea of a stock exchange that allows companies and investors to focus on 5, 10, 25 year horizons sounds great!
But this already exists. It's just the regular stock exchange.
It's also worth noting that a majority of the capital in the market is already focused on very long term horizons. Most of it is sitting in boring mutual funds, who's investors are looking towards retirement as their horizon.
If you're looking for a market that is so focused on long term horizons that they don't even care whether you have enough revenue to remain solvent, and won't have enough revenue to remain solvent at any time in the foreseeable future, then that market already exists too. You can call it Private Equity, or Venture Capital, and HN often likes to discuss how it's trying to reinvent the 2000s tech bubble. It's also led to some incredible scams, and isn't really something you want consumer investors betting their retirements on.
> something like: “investors must hold positions for 10 years”, or, “earnings only reported every 2 years”
These wouldn't be good rules even if you were focused exclusively on long term results. Your longterm outlook can change from one day to the next.
If you want long term focus, invest in an index. No single company can weather every storm. Sometimes they need short term focus to survive in the long term.
I think the idea is that a lot of the perceived instability in the economy is _caused_ or at least much amplified by the nature of stock markets. Changing how one thinks about stocks and what the ideal of a "healthy" company looks like might alleviate some of these problems.
> a lot of the perceived instability in the economy is _caused_ or at least much amplified by the nature of stock markets.
Where did you get this idea? I don't see anyone saying it. Consider what might happen if you freeze the ability for people to borrow money. The stock market allows capital to move around more freely.
I notice this is your first comment in a year and a half. Welcome back.
But this already exists. It's just the regular stock exchange.
It's also worth noting that a majority of the capital in the market is already focused on very long term horizons. Most of it is sitting in boring mutual funds, who's investors are looking towards retirement as their horizon.
If you're looking for a market that is so focused on long term horizons that they don't even care whether you have enough revenue to remain solvent, and won't have enough revenue to remain solvent at any time in the foreseeable future, then that market already exists too. You can call it Private Equity, or Venture Capital, and HN often likes to discuss how it's trying to reinvent the 2000s tech bubble. It's also led to some incredible scams, and isn't really something you want consumer investors betting their retirements on.
> something like: “investors must hold positions for 10 years”, or, “earnings only reported every 2 years”
These wouldn't be good rules even if you were focused exclusively on long term results. Your longterm outlook can change from one day to the next.