A bagel is a bread product with a hole in the center. The bagel—like the donut, with its hole in the center—has long symbolized the number “zero” or “0.” The tennis “bagel” is a term from the 1970s meaning that a tennis player has a “zero” on the scoreboard.
 
“Bagel land” is a stock term also meaning “zero” or worthlessness. The term “bagel land” is cited in print in 2007 and was entered in the “Investopedia” in early 2008.
     
 
Investopedia
Bagel Land
A slang term that represents a stock or other security that is approaching $0 in price. Arriving in bagel land is usually the result of one or more major business problems that may not be resolvable. This term is typically used to describe an asset that has fallen from grace as opposed to a penny stock or other historically cheap security. 
 
If a stock or other asset is headed toward bagel land or is approaching $0 (resembling the hole in the middle of a bagel), investors generally feel that the security is nearly worthless. In such cases, a company may be nearing bankruptcy or facing major solvency issues. While returning from bagel land is possible, the likelihood that equity investors will lose their entire stakes in the company becomes very high.
   
The Housing Bubble
November 21, 2007
This Multifaceted, Jenga Tower Of Hurdles
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From Barrons. “ACA Capital. a leading insurer of sub-prime mortgage-bond securitizations, is drawing relentlessly closer to ‘bagel-land,’ that dismal place where a stock’s price is zero.”
     
Denver Business Journal
Friday, March 7, 2008
On the Money
Aunt Millie goes to Bagel Land, and more jargon
by C. Stephen Guyer
Special to the Business Journal
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Bagel Land—The imaginary place a stock or other security goes when its price approaches zero. This usually results from one or more major problems that may not be resolvable. This term describes a formerly popular company that has fallen from grace—as opposed to a penny stock or other historically low-priced security.
 
Early to Rise
Language Matters
by Andrew Gordon (06/2/2008)
“Bagel land?” I would have thought the term had something to do with tennis - as in “That first set I got bageled” (meaning shut out, six games to none). But no. It’s a financial term meaning “zero” - as in “Your stock is heading for bagel land.” Hmm. I’m in the middle of the financial industry and even I don’t know all the expressions being bandied about.
 
Chicago (IL) Tribune
‘Bagel land’: It’s no treat
By Eileen Ambrose
July 06, 2008
Are you confused when your broker says your stock is headed for “bagel land?”
   
San Francisco (CA) Chronicle
Nasdaq has suspended exchange delisting rules
Bernadette Tansey, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, October 25, 2008
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Among the Bay Area companies exiled to “bagel land” - where share prices are approaching zero - are small biotech companies such as Hana Biosciences Inc. of South San Francisco and tech firms such as semiconductor equipment manufacturer Aviza Technology Inc. of Scotts Valley (Santa Cruz County).