Earnings Call

See: Earnings announcement.

When companies announce earnings, they almost always host a conference call so that a dozen sellside analysts, professional buyside investors, journalists...and, of course, competitors...can all listen in as the CEO paints the prettiest picture she can on top of the numbers the company just printed. The CEO and CFO usually stand ready for grilling from the peanut gallery.

The call is usually transcribed and published for all to see well ahead of the next day's trading. And as part of an extension of Regulation Full Disclosure, these calls are usually held when the market is not running, so that the numbers and analysis are forded time to digest and understand the info they were just given.