Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Bloglines - Stock Buying Pitfalls

Bloglines user PeterDawson (slash.pd@gmail.com) has sent this item to you, with the following personal message:

An interesting transprecency statement by Alan. After all, one would think that he would have full working knowledge of the stocks/shares limitations as an officer of an public company !!


Alan Meckler

Stock Buying Pitfalls

By Alan Meckler

I had mentioned on August 9 that I thought it was a good opportunity to buy our stock. So I did just that. Unfortunately I learned, rather painfully, that there is a rule called the "short swing" rule which means that if an officer of a public company sells stock at a price higher than a subsequent purchase (during a six month period) that that officer must pay the difference back to the company.

So yours truly bought shares last week for approximately $6.50 and because I sold shares in June at approximately $16.00, I had to pay a fine to Jupitermedia of about $10.00 per share!!! So while some out there are buying Jupitermedia these days for $6.50 a share, this blogger just paid about $16.00 per share for a $6.50 share.

Needless to say this has been a painful and frustrating experience with the arcane rules of buying and selling stock as an officer of a public company. And of course I will not be buying more stock for at least three more months at which time I will be beyond the grasp of the short swing profit rule.

I guess the only good that has come out of this distasteful experience is that Jupitermedia's treasury is now somewhat larger than it was last week due to my "contribution." Of course I think the money was spent on a good and solid "cause!"


No comments: