This is a good example of an accounting trick that should not be allowed by an exchange-listed company. It’s simply a trick to make a loss not count against ear

This is a good example of an accounting trick that should not be allowed by an exchange-listed company. It’s simply a trick to make a loss not count against earnings. It’s not even shown as a liability like a self-loan would. In M&A situations it’s usually shown as an asset. The point being that you can’t trust the earnings number and you can’t trust the balance sheet asst value, so you really don’t know anything about a stock. I’m surprised that no analyst firm has published a common GAAP-based valuation. Perhaps because it’s impossible, but that underlies the problem for small investors.