Baked In The Cake

  

The phrase, "baked in the cake" is used to indicate that something (merger/acquisition, new product line, CEO change, something) is already in the arena of public knowledge, and therefore factored into the current stock or bond price. It's another version of "priced in."

To add more food-related advice, take the baked in the cake news with a grain of salt. Talking heads that say the info is baked in the cake often seem to be too sure of themselves. If they were right as often as they think, they wouldn't need to be working any longer.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is an Expected Return?8 Views

00:00

Finance, a la shmoop. what is expected return? Okay we've been experimenting for

00:08

months on libertarians with cancer in a gwangju prison. Our drug is gonna do one [ man swallows pill]

00:14

of three things. A. it may make the prisoners glow in the dark. Not all that

00:19

useful as a drug discovery but it would allow investors to sell the company to [man's face glows]

00:24

cirque de soleil who would be thrilled to cut down on bodypaint expenses. All

00:29

right well if event A happens investors will get at least a 20% return on our [circus performers shown]

00:34

money odds of the the glow must go on happening ? 35% . okay moving on. Event B, our

00:41

drug may well just kill them - yeah that's a bunch of libertarians in a gwangju

00:46

prison. Who's gonna notice, right? in which case investors lose all of their money [money on fire]

00:50

and the glow must go on just folds up tent, and goes away. The return there

00:55

would be zero. Odds of this happening? Well, 60% yeah

00:59

six out of ten. Probably gonna die. okay event C the drug cures cancer! If that [written explanation shown]

01:03

happens while investors get a thousand percent return on their money .Save the

01:08

world and in general improve their tinder match ratio by like a zillion.

01:13

Odds of this happening, well just 5% but hey it's worth a shot right?

01:18

So our adjusted probability chart looks like- this - see we got return and odds and [chart shown]

01:24

expect the case 2035, 7 yeah there we go.

01:27

So what is all this telling us ? Well that the overall expected return - yeah you

01:32

knew we'd get there eventually - is a 57% return on our investment. Great return!

01:39

bottom line do it the chance of curing cancer would be well worth the risk. And [people dance]

01:44

if not well at least there would be fewer bicycling accidents.

Up Next

Finance: What's the difference between mergers and acquisitions?
23 Views

In a merger, the boards and shareholders of both companies must both vote in favor of the action, and the post merger acquiring company will often...

Finance: What is The Difference Between a Horizontal and a Vertical Merger?
6 Views

What is the difference between a Horizontal and a Vertical Merger? Horizontal mergers happen when two companies within the same industry decide to...

Finance: What's the Difference Between Stocks and Bonds?
186 Views

What is the difference between stocks and bonds? Stocks are ownership. They control the election of the board of directors, who hires the CEO, who...

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