Do you own shares of your employer?

[Grey Fox]

No, the incentive isn't big enough compare to the total stagnation of the share price.

[Vince]

Yes.  They give us shares every year as a bonus.  I sell most of them off pretty quickly though.

[Caliga]

No, the incentive isn't big enough compare to the total stagnation of the share price.

Yeah, the main reason I want to do it is that I can buy from the company and not pay brokerage fees on buying/selling, and I suspect our stock is due for a major jump in price soon.

[Ed Anger]

No, the incentive isn't big enough compare to the total stagnation of the share price.

Yeah, the main reason I want to do it is that I can buy from the company and not pay brokerage fees on buying/selling, and I suspect our stock is due for a major jump in price soon.

Hello, insider.

Not the brightest move declaring that in an open forum, but I'll forgive you this time.

[Caliga]

I don't have any special knowledge of our corporate plans that one couldn't figure out from reading news releases about us.  I just happen to be in a position to put it all together.

Anyway, a) the company has trading blackout periods, and b) if I was steadily buying stock via purchase plan I don't see how anyone can hold that against me.

[Syt]

No, our multi-billion dollar corporation is non-public/private owned and they don't share. We get cash bonus instead.

[The Brain]

The boss of my boss is the major shareholder. I am not a shareholder.

[Barrister]

I think I'll buy them. Getting them at 1/2 or 2/3 the price seems to be a no-brainer. I wonder if there is something I don't see. 

The downside is that I have to keep them until end of 2011 or otherwise the tax incentive is void and I have to pay that.

You're right.  It is a no-brainer.  You're doubling (or increasing by 50%) your money as soon as you purchase the stock.  The end of 2011 is not that far in the future.

The only trick is to remember to sell a number (though not all) of your stock once the lock-out ends, or else you do in fact run the serious risk of not diversifying.

And you could say I won a share of my employer, but then again so does every Canadian citizen.

[Caliga]

On a related note: Accenture is at a 52 week high.  My sell trigger kicks in once it hits $44.  At that point: $$$ for Cal 

[Tamas]

No, the incentive isn't big enough compare to the total stagnation of the share price.

Yeah, the main reason I want to do it is that I can buy from the company and not pay brokerage fees on buying/selling, and I suspect our stock is due for a major jump in price soon.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter

[garbon]

On a related note: Accenture is at a 52 week high.  My sell trigger kicks in once it hits $44.  At that point: $$$ for Cal 

Eww...Accenture was always doing on campus recruiting.

[Caliga]

Auditors amuse me.  They're often kids right out of college who seem to know next to nothing.  They usually show up with a senior dude who tries to help them do the initial legwork, but then the senior guy goes away and makes the noobs do all the real work.  I never felt like I needed to trick an external auditor, but it seems like it wouldn't be too hard to do.

[Admiral Yi]

I do not.  The place I work has a pretty crummy plan.  You deduct after-tax money from every pay check, then you use that at the end of the year to buy stock at the current price minus a 20% discount.  So you're floating the company in effect a six month loan.  Plus any fraction of share's worth of money left over is rolled over to the next year.  Plus it's in the form of an ADR, so you're paying a 1% management fee off the top as long as you own it.

[Sheilbh]

No.  We're owned by a number of multi-nationals who don't share (except with each other)

[Caliga]

I do not.  The place I work has a pretty crummy plan.  You deduct after-tax money from every pay check, then you use that at the end of the year to buy stock at the current price minus a 20% discount.  So you're floating the company in effect a six month loan.  Plus any fraction of share's worth of money left over is rolled over to the next year.  Plus it's in the form of an ADR, so you're paying a 1% management fee off the top as long as you own it.

For some reason I didn't think you were employed.