In The Penalty Box

Categories: Regulations

We weren’t thrilled when our sister married Wally with the wandering eye. We were even less thrilled a few years later when he was indicted for embezzling money from Creepies, his custom terrarium company. To make matters even worse, we all invested in Creepies at our sister’s behest, and now the stock is in the penalty box and, frankly, we’re all just about done with Wally and his shenanigans.

Wait, did we say, “penalty box?” Yep, we sure did. Any hockey fans out there should totally get the reference: when a hockey player is in the penalty box, it’s usually because he or she has done something wrong, and they’re now being forced to take a time-out and think about what they’ve done.

When a stock is “in the penalty box,” it means something bad has happened (like its CEO being indicted for embezzling, for example), its value has tanked, and it’s not likely to recover any time soon.

Will it eventually? Maybe…or maybe not. It depends on what happened and whether or not the company can overcome it and move forward.

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