Re: Employee Stock Purchase Plan?

Will Trice <wtrice@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:

> I have to disagree with this as well.  I have participated in these
> plans before (however, the plan at my current employer is inside our
> 401(k) but offers no discount and a minimum 5 year holding period -
> why would anyone do that?) and I usually flipped my shares as soon as
> I received them.  But I did that because I evaluated the company and
> decided that I wouldn't buy shares outside the plan, so why would I
> hold shares inside the plan?  If the company is worth holding, that
> might be the right choice.  But that's certainly not always the right
> choice.

That was my approach as well.  In addition, even if a company's stock
is "worth holding" by some random investor, it may make less sense 
for an employee to own the stock; having both job security and savings
tied up in the same business seems like a Bad Idea to me.  If your 
company also offers stock options as part of its compensation package,
then you already have exposure to upside potential in company stock with
no risk to your own savings if the stock price takes a nosedive instead.

Just my own $.02 worth, but the only situation where I'd feel
comfortable holding company stock is if it's a small enough company
where I can see a direct link between my own daily work and the
company's profitability.  That wasn't going to happen in a company
with 80,000 employees, given that I wasn't in line to be the next CTO
or whatever.

-Sandra the cynic

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