The SEO literature documents 1) negative announcement effects; 2) the setting of offer prices at a discount from the market price; 3) longrun underperformance; and 4) large fluctuations in volume.In addition to long-run underperformance relative to other stocks, there is some evidence that issuers succeed at timing their equity offerings for periods when future market returns are low.When examining a large class of corporate financing activities, including equity offerings, convertible bond offerings, bond offerings, open market repurchases, stock and cashfinanced mergers and acquisitions, and dividend increases or decreases, several patterns emerge.