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Forward-Looking Statements

Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, American companies have a legal “safe harbor” for forward-looking statements. A projection is protected when it is identified as such and “accompanied by meaningful cautionary statements identifying important factors” that could make the results differ.

This is why earnings calls open with a warning that the company’s plans and forecasts may not come true. Words such as “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate” and “intend” mark a statement as forward-looking.

The Quarter

Every domestic American public company reports to investors by the quarter. It files a Form 10-Q for each of the first three quarters of its fiscal year, with unaudited financial statements, and an annual report on Form 10-K. Companies, analysts and the financial press speak of Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4.

In September 2025 President Trump called for an end to quarterly reporting. On May 5, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed letting companies file a semiannual report on a new Form 10-S. Under the proposal, a company that does not choose this option stays on quarterly reporting. As of October 2026 the proposal had not been adopted.

Pencil It In

Let’s pencil it in. — We set a date, but it can still be erased.

Down the road. In the pipeline. — In the future, not yet fixed.

TBD. — To be determined.

Next quarter. Q3. The back half of the year. — The units of the planning calendar.

The out years. — The later years of a multiyear budget, where the numbers are least firm.

Eventually. Someday. — No date, and therefore no commitment.

An Election That Could Not Move

In November 1864, in the middle of the Civil War, Americans voted for president. On November 10, Abraham Lincoln spoke to a group of serenaders at the White House: “We can not have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego, or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us.”

The State of the Union, Postponed

In January 2019, during a partial government shutdown, Speaker Nancy Pelosi rescinded her invitation to President Trump to deliver the State of the Union address on January 29. She cited security concerns, since Secret Service and Homeland Security staff were unpaid. After the shutdown ended, the speech was set for February 5. Pelosi wrote: “In our conversation today, we agreed on February 5th.”

Here the date itself became part of a political conflict.

Franksgiving

In August 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving up by one week, to lengthen the Christmas shopping season. Football teams had already scheduled their big games for the old date. Calendar makers had already printed calendars for years to come.

Critics called the new holiday Franksgiving. Thirty-two states followed the change, and 16 refused, so for two years the country celebrated two Thanksgivings. On December 26, 1941, Roosevelt signed a law that fixed Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November.

Scrubbed

NASA calls a launch attempt that is called off a scrub. “Scrubs are usually a last-minute decision triggered by bad weather or mechanical issues causing safety concerns.” Of NASA’s 135 Space Shuttle missions, only about 40 percent launched on time. In 2022 the launch of Artemis I was pushed back four times.

Postponed Weddings

According to The Knot, 47 percent of couples who planned to marry in 2020 postponed their weddings to 2021 or later. One couple described how they handled it: “We emailed our guests right away to let them know.”

The Super Bowl Moves a Week

After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the NFL postponed the next week’s games to January. To keep the full playoffs, every playoff game, including the Super Bowl, moved one week later. The new Super Bowl date had already been booked by the National Automobile Dealers Association for its convention.

The dealers first thought, “No way.” They then agreed to move their convention, because “it was the right thing to do for America.” The NFL paid them $7.5 million and gave $500,000 to their fund for survivors of September 11.

Propose a New Time

In July 2018 Google added a feature to Google Calendar that lets a guest propose a new time for a meeting. The organizer can accept it with one click.

The scheduling company Reclaim.ai analyzed the calendars of more than 15,000 professionals from February 2020 to October 2021. One-on-one meetings were rescheduled 42.4 percent of the time and canceled 29.6 percent of the time.