The IPO of Carter Holdings was quietly pulled from the schedule within forty-eight hours. The announcement cited “market timing and strategic realignment,” which was the language companies used when they needed to retreat without naming the reason. But the people who needed to know the reason knew it. The lead underwriter had a conversation with the team at Reed Financial that lasted eleven minutes, and when it was over, the underwriter had a different understanding of which way the wind was blowing. Two institutional investors who had been warm on the offering sent brief emails citing “portfolio rebalancing,” which was how portfolio managers said goodbye when they did not want to explain themselves. A credit line that had been extended to Carter Holdings on the basis of anticipated IPO liquidity was reviewed by the lending institution’s relationship manager, who placed a call to her counterpart at Reed Financial and came away from the conversation with new information.