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biostud

Lifer
Feb 27, 2003
19,327
6,346
136
My index Euro STOXX 600 is up 9.69% YTD, European stocks has long been said to be under valued, and with the lowering of the rate in the Eurozone it could be a good year for European stocks.

(600 largest companies in Europe)
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
69,574
13,244
126
www.anyf.ca
ESP programs are rarely "good" long-term investments. Most recommendations I've ever seen is to take the discount and immediately sell to get a nice little return, even if it is taxed at ordinary rates. Long-term, they're bad because you have both your savings and salary in a single company, and you miss out on the opportunity to more broadly invest. While your company stock has suffered, the markets as a whole have been in a tear.

That's more or less what I was doing, it was for short term stuff mostly, like 3-4 years, like if I wanted to buy a big ticket item, like my property, or my truck or major house projects etc that's where the money came from.

I'm also not sure what happens if I were to get laid off, as it's tied to my AD account and need to be in the office or VPNed in to access it and that access would most likely be revoked. So yeah I tend to keep the money in there for the minimum time then take out when the stock is good. Right now it's bad so will wait it out though.

Back in the day our ESP was actually Nortel stocks. That did not end well for many people who were keeping it long term.
 
Dec 10, 2005
27,230
11,386
136
That's more or less what I was doing, it was for short term stuff mostly, like 3-4 years, like if I wanted to buy a big ticket item, like my property, or my truck or major house projects etc that's where the money came from.
I mean people sell as soon as the stock is issued. Keep the holding period to the absolute minimum.

I'm also not sure what happens if I were to get laid off, as it's tied to my AD account and need to be in the office or VPNed in to access it and that access would most likely be revoked. So yeah I tend to keep the money in there for the minimum time then take out when the stock is good. Right now it's bad so will wait it out though.
I had briefly participated in one, and it was held by a third party brokerage. And you could pay to transfer it to a separate brokerage.

Back in the day our ESP was actually Nortel stocks. That did not end well for many people who were keeping it long term.
Yes. A good example of why diversification is important and why it's not good to literally put your savings and salary in one basket.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
69,574
13,244
126
www.anyf.ca
For ours we have to hold for at least 2 years otherwise you lose the company's portion. It used to be 1 year, and it used to be all in one shot so in January it would open up, but now it's per unit, so in reality it's more like 3 years, because at the 2 year mark, the units you bought less than 2 years ago are not yet available so you have to wait another year. You CAN cash any time you want but you lose the company's portion if you do that.

Once I feel like I am making progress on the credit line I might go back in but I'll only put the minimal amount to get the company portion.
 
Dec 10, 2005
27,230
11,386
136
For ours we have to hold for at least 2 years otherwise you lose the company's portion. It used to be 1 year, and it used to be all in one shot so in January it would open up, but now it's per unit, so in reality it's more like 3 years, because at the 2 year mark, the units you bought less than 2 years ago are not yet available so you have to wait another year. You CAN cash any time you want but you lose the company's portion if you do that.

Once I feel like I am making progress on the credit line I might go back in but I'll only put the minimal amount to get the company portion.
Yeah, that is kind of a shitty esp then, especially for mediocre upsides and huge downsides.
 

Charmonium

Lifer
May 15, 2015
10,303
3,379
136
Yes. A good example of why diversification is important and why it's not good to literally put your savings and salary in one basket.
A friend of mine gets pretty generous payments of stock but it has to be held for 3 years. She been there a little longer than that so I begged her to sell whatever she can and plow that into an index fund or ETF.

She seems reluctant though - which may be justified since it's a high tech company but the stock can have some serious swings.

I told her that sure, she might sell at X dollars per share only to see it go up to 3X dollars. But I tried to emphasize the importance of diversifying and acknowledge that there is always the possibility of paper losses.

But I wasn't telling her to sell everything. OK, I was but it only applied to whatever stock has matured thus far. After that, and after she diversifies her 401k, she's welcome to hold a large block of shares as long as it's not her only holding.

I think a lot of people don't do this because they feel like they're somehow betraying the company, her boss, etc. I do understand that, but I have to believe no one in management is going to take that personally. It's just good financial judgement.
 
Reactions: Brainonska511

Indus

Lifer
May 11, 2002
14,063
9,825
136
BTW I am starting to wonder..

If I wanted to hedge my bets and put like 2k in a bitcoin etf which one would be the best?

IBIT or FBTC or something else?

I still don't trust Bitcoin 100% but just getting a feeling that bitcoin has become too big to be allowed to fail.. especially as big brokerages/ investors/ donors are buying into it.

Maybe it's FOMO or maybe it's just my desire for diversification.. like when you buy index funds.. you have no idea who the 490-500th companies are but you will put a little in and hope for the best!
 

Charmonium

Lifer
May 15, 2015
10,303
3,379
136
@Indus - I completely missed the boat on BTC, but I can't say I'm horribly sorry.

While some coins might have real world applications, like cross border payments, it's because they were designed with that in mind.

BTC has none of the internal structure that would EVER allow it to process transactions quickly (as in thousands per second) along with a variety of other syphilitic wounds that, at best, can perhaps be worked around.

I used to have a better handle on this stuff, but I give less than a wet shit about it now.
 
Dec 10, 2005
27,230
11,386
136
BTW I am starting to wonder..

If I wanted to hedge my bets and put like 2k in a bitcoin etf which one would be the best?

IBIT or FBTC or something else?

I still don't trust Bitcoin 100% but just getting a feeling that bitcoin has become too big to be allowed to fail.. especially as big brokerages/ investors/ donors are buying into it.

Maybe it's FOMO or maybe it's just my desire for diversification.. like when you buy index funds.. you have no idea who the 490-500th companies are but you will put a little in and hope for the best!
You should have an investment strategy and stick with it. Don't let emotion and FOMO mislead you.
 

Indus

Lifer
May 11, 2002
14,063
9,825
136
You should have an investment strategy and stick with it. Don't let emotion and FOMO mislead you.

I do.. and I'm following your earlier guidance of bogle portfolio.

75 index fund/ 15 gold.. the 10 is the one I'm diversifying into speculative assets.

BTW the reason I started to look into bitcoin as of today and it's actually today.. an investor I really really respect had his investment fund buy up some bitcoin after avoiding it for ages.


And I began thinking.. these guys are way smarter than me..

If he's making a small hedge into bitcoin.. maybe I can too with 2k or so. If it goes down, 2k won't lead me to financial ruin but if it 10x's like some claim.. that's basically another car!
 

Indus

Lifer
May 11, 2002
14,063
9,825
136
BTW I should mention.. I keep an eye on them because even though they're oil shieks.. they've been very pro energy growth and put their money in investments towards green energy.

So when today's BTC investment came up.. I was truly shocked.. I would have expected more of an investment into Lithium or Water or something.
 

Charmonium

Lifer
May 15, 2015
10,303
3,379
136
I have no idea what's going to happen to crypto in the long run. The question I always ask is 'what's the use case.'

With BTC, an enormous chunk of it's appreciation is due to the the following:

1. At first, it was a good way to buy drugs on Silk Road.
2. Then it became the darling of Chinese investors since it could be used to circumvent the govt's capital controls (outflow of Yuan). That took it on its first 'moon shot.'
3. Once it became clear that it was going to be traded in US capital markets, well, it was pretty obvious that this would be the second moon shot, or maybe Mars shot is closer to the truth. [still couldn't be bothered]

But always remember, a very significant part of each leg up is due to the fact that so much BTC is just MIA. Plus, the people that own it, for the most part, aren't selling. So there's a tremendous amount of artificial scarcity in the market.

Truly efficient payment systems don't just emerge fully formed from the foreheads of their founders (oblique reference to Athena being born fully formed from the head of Zeus). I gave this particular colloquium once before so I'll just claim, w/o proof, that such things have to be very carefully engineered and involve a tremendous amount of infrastructure that software engineers have to build. I haven't heard about anything remotely like that around BTC.
 
Reactions: Indus

jpiniero

Lifer
Oct 1, 2010
15,981
6,470
136
Ahh... you guys weren't kidding about the eggs

At least the store I went to was well stocked.
 

dasherHampton

Platinum Member
Jan 19, 2018
2,584
514
126
I did something I never thought I'd do on Friday. I bought 10 shares of MSTR.

If it does well I might keep adding 10 at a time. We'll see.
 
Reactions: Indus
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