ABSTRACT
An investor, jumping to the stock market page of the morning newspaper is not just eager to find out how shares closed; first of all, he would like to learn that they rose during yesterday’s trading. Most investors would be prepared to pay quite large sums of money for good news. Unfortunately, there is no market for good news. Nor is there a market for bad news. There is only a market for news. “How much do you pay to know that share prices went up 2.8 per cent?” is a paradoxical question. It gives away the very information it had meant to sell. News can only be sold before it is known. To be precise, what is sold is the source of news-a newspaper, internet access, an investor’s letter-but never the actual news.
