Strategy’s stock price dipped 4% in after-hours trading yesterday as traders speculated about its removal from the MSCI World Index.
The stock indexation giant announced on Thursday that it will adopt rules removing “non-operating companies” from its Global Investable Market Indexes, including its MSCI World Index that benefits from substantial, passive investment inflows.
Strategy is the biggest name those rules could remove, and the company’s MSTR common stock immediately traded 4% lower within 20 minutes of the closing bell after news of the rule change disseminated.
The timing of the rule change aligns with MSCI’s November 2026 Index Review, effective as of the close on November 30. Strategy isn’t currently a confirmed removal, it’s specifically named as under threat of removal.
The finalized list of affected constituents will arrive on November 11.
This is the second fright that Strategy shareholders have had to endure about the MSCI World Index and its passive flows in 2026. Indeed, on January 6, MSCI shelved its first opportunity to remove Strategy from its World Index.
Read more: Strategy’s STRC gives hedge funds a new reason to short MSTR
MSCI has named Strategy as a potential World Index removal in November
MSCI’s new methodology works in two steps. A company whose “operating” assets fall short of half of its “total” assets moves to a five-ratio exclusion screening phase.
Because Strategy holds the vast majority of its assets as non-operating, passive BTC investment, the company would be subjected to this screening phase.
Next, if MSCI flags the company on at least four of five “ratios,” a stock becomes ineligible.
Removal requires failing the screens in each of the two most recent annual filing periods, which can predate the rules’ adoption.
An impact list published alongside the adopted rules flags Strategy. Its float-adjusted market value, about $40 billion as of October 9, dwarfs the size of every other stock on the list of potential removals.
BREAKING: MSCI confirms new rules to exclude non-operating companies from its indexes.
— Bitcoin Archive (@BitcoinArchive) October 15, 2026
Michael Saylor's Strategy and Metaplanet likely to be removed.Final list Nov 11.$MSTR pic.twitter.com/duwzGJoDHY
Lobbying for MSCI inclusion
Strategy founder Saylor and his CEO Phong Le have actively campaigned against the removal. Their company even has a dedicated subpage on its website dedicated to lobbying for continued MSCI indexation.
In an August 31 letter, for example, Saylor and CEO Phong Le called the proposal “discriminatory, arbitrary, and misguided.” They also warned the rules “would profoundly harm MSCI’s reputation as a reliable and neutral index provider.”
The letter urges MSCI to “remain what it has held itself out to be for decades: a mirror of the market, not an arbiter of it.”
Saylor kept the same energy on television two days before the decision. On October 13, he told Bloomberg Crypto that MSCI’s position was “disappointing.”
JPMorgan estimated in November 2025, during an earlier threat of de-indexation for Strategy, that MSCI exclusion alone could mean $2.8 billion of outflows for Strategy.
Indeed, Strategy’s August consultation response puts MSCI-linked fund ownership at about 3.1% of its basic shares, roughly 13 million shares.
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