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Gee, don't go all psycho. It is not a lecture but it is a lesson (I wont give credentials 'cause it is just tooooo cheeky). Working in an F10 firm says nothing about knowledge of capital markets. In fact the bigger the firm the less likely any one EMPLOYEE knows squat about capital markets. Whenever credentials are being tossed around you know it time to roll up the pants too late to save the shoes.

Quarterly reports are a MAJOR critical factor of liquidity. Investors demand the feed back. In fact trading time frames are much, much shorter. Quarterly reports are just a benchmark. Real trading is based on mere perceptions of future results (upgrades downgrades are an example.) Just ask yourself this question; if quarterly reports don't matter why is there some much trading between 10Ks?

If people only cared about annual results and did not care about short term deltas in earnings perceptions then investors would not trade in and out. They are trading because they change their mind about result expectations. The faster the minds change the more the stock trades. Look at days when everybody is wrong and the company misses. The stocks will trade massive quantities.

Liquidity and trading volumes are tightly linked. A stock that trades is considered to be liquid. If there is no trading there is no liquidity and vice versa. What drives most of this trading is changing perceptions of what the quarterly report will be.

Its chumps like you (long term investors) that pays my bills. Look at all the major indexes this last year. Pretty much flat but if you knew what you are doing there was money to be made, even in the indexes. This concept of buy and hold is dopey. But thankfully for me there are those out there that see a problem with quarterly earnings reports and THINK there is something wrong with frequent feedback to investors.
Do you also want a lesson on volatility?