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Few things are easy. Some problems with your proposal:

1. Assumes the asset in question is publicly traded.

2. Assumes the publicly traded asset has a non trivial amount of trade volume 3. Assumes asset price is relatively stable, moving in a narrow band along a clear trend-line

4. Assumes you have defined the price from the stock information (last trade before close. Daily average, etc)

5. Assumes holder's position is small enough not to affect stock price were they to sell.

And stocks are the easiest to do this with!

Look at the Trump vs NY court case for the value of his house in FL. Unlike the valuation imposed by government fiat, the valuation was agreed to freely by the parties. The courts found it excessive (and it might be) and proposed a valuation so ridiculously low it alone gives Trump grounds to appeal that the judge is either incompetent on the matter or has a personal bias and should anyway have recused himself.



> the value of his house in FL

Are we talking about Mar-a-Lago here?

> the valuation was agreed to freely by the parties

Which valuation is that? The one from Lawrence Moens?


I do believe it was the Mar a Lago, yes. Trump's valuation was eye watering, I still can't believe it, but the market players agreed to it.

The banks agreed to the valuation and under no coercion agreed to lend money with it as collateral. Trump pays off that loan and the banks are made whole.

By contrast my school board telling me my house is worth 600 k instead of 400 k scares the shit out of me. I can't agree to it and my only recourse are the courts. The school board has lawyers on staff so it costs them nothing if I sue.


The courts found it excessive (and it might be) and proposed a valuation so ridiculously low it alone gives Trump grounds to appeal

This is just wrong. The very low valuation was not proposed by the NY court, but by the Palm Beach County tax appraiser. This is because the property is deeded for use as a social club rather than a private residence (a condition of sale when Trump purchased it iirc, and one which affects future disposal of the property) and as a commercial entity the value is appraised as a multiple of business income.


Notably, the bank in question wasn't bothered by restrictions on the property when granting the business loan. Nor did the bank ever have to find out.


Thing is, under law you are not allowed to falsify information on financial disclosures like this, regardless of whether the counterparty is OK with it or not. It may be that the state considers the integrity of the financial system a higher priority than individual deals, or it may be designed to prevent money laundering - more likely the latter, as there are a lot of ways to clean dirty money if everyone involved is willing to accept some imaginary claims as fact.




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