Break the Buck and the Buck Breaks You

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The New York Stock Exchange won't have Thornburg Mortgage (NYSE: TMA) to kick around anymore. Shares of the troubled home-loan company are being delisted after tomorrow's close.

We've seen a ton of stocks with household names fall below the $1 mark this year. Now they're starting to pay the price.

Thornburg Mortgage has been on the clock since May, after its stock traded for less than a dollar for 30 consecutive trading days. The exchange then gave the company six months to get its stock price back on the good side of the buck.

Reverse splits are typically the easy way out. Online apparel retailer Bluefly (Nasdaq: BFLY) did exactly that earlier this year. But for now, Thornburg won't fight the delisting, bowing out of NYSE Euronext's (NYSE: NYX) historic exchange to settle for more obscure trading on the OTC Bulletin Board and/or the pink sheets.

With so many stocks on Wall Street's dollar menu, expect a lot more companies to be forced into deciding between a reverse split and expulsion from the exchange. Terrestrial radio's Citadel Broadcasting (NYSE: CDL), amusement park operator Six Flags (NYSE: SIX), and satellite radio giant Sirius XM (Nasdaq: SIRI) are all on the clock and considering reverse splits.

Their dilemma is unfortunate. Reverse splits are zero-sum games, but they're sadly becoming the best way out for some of these companies. Hopefully, the others will put up more of a fight than Thornburg, or the exchange itself may have to reconsider its listing requirements during this brutal equity downturn.

Further fully listed Foolishness:

• Reverse splits will be more common over the next few months.
• Wall Street's dollar menu keeps growing and growing.
• How low can stocks go?