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Strategies & Market Trends : Zeev's Turnips - No Politics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (96572)	7/20/2002 9:18:57 PM
From: Smart_Money	Respond to of 99280

The search full text feature is still dead. SI is going done the tube. The only current quality of SI is the posters itself.

To: mishedlo who wrote (96572)	7/20/2002 9:28:00 PM
From: Lone Ranger	Respond to of 99280

mish, And insider sales should be reported within 3 days and any possible conflicts of interest should be stated. But mish, sadly the things you and I say won't happen because the pres, his 2nd, and Mr. The Pitts all have profited from privileged transactions. But we will still bottom sometime, the question is when and for how long?

To: mishedlo who wrote (96572)	7/21/2002 8:07:48 PM
From: Joe Smith	Respond to of 99280

Mish- Maybe I understand this a little better and am not crazy. I think you misunderstand the effect of options if you say that the profits are going to them and they only show up in a footnote. When a company does its earnings it divides the profits by the number of outstanding shares. Any option that has been exercised is not paid for by the company's profits, it is paid for in the open market by a stock holder who chooses to buy the exercised share. At that moment, the number of shares outstanding increases and the thus reduces earnings per share. No money comes out of the company's coffers. In fact, the company gets a nice tax break. Beyond that, any share that is above-water is also included in the outstanding shares. Again, I say that this is no different than a secondary offering of stock. There is no expense to the company, just dilution of equity. Now, this dilution of equity is important and companies must use common sense when offering options, but expensing them seems to be the wrong method IMHO. Finally, the only time these options are exercised is when the stock increases over the strike price. For options to be worth anything, the stock must be in the green and everyone should be happy. Options, in fact, are far less valuable than actual shares of stock. Employees are gretly restricted by lock-outs in exercising them and they are almost always treated as personal income so a huge tax bite is taken out the employees interest in the company, no matter how patient they are in holding it. Stock options have been responsible for a great deal of the innovation that has occurred in Silicon Vally. IMHO shareholders should be glad to share a REASONABLE amount of the equity in the company with the employees who work so hard to turn the profits. For every CEO who acts irrespOnsibly, I am sure that there are 100 who work their asses off and deserve to be rewarded for their incredibly hard work. All IMHO and with all due respect.