Comparing stock and bond responses to earnings calls, bondholders emphasize operations and downside risk (relative to growth and innovation). While consistent with asset payoff differences, dictionary differences follow the investor cohort and not the payoff structure. Among bonds that are de facto equities but priced by bondholders—junior debt for which firm value is less than senior debt face value—bond investors continue to interpret information through a creditor’s lens. Information ignored by one dictionary but not the other generates price underreaction.

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