I lost six thousand dollars today.

[tithonium]

Amazon's stock tanked after the earnings call. We dropped $5.84 per share today. My initial grant dropped back into the red. Pre-tax, the value of my vested options dropped just under $6k today.

I am not a happy monkey.

Comments

[pallidbat.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I'm sorry honey. That really sucks.

[tithonium.livejournal.com]

Now, see, at Loudeye, this wasn't a problem. I had 10,000 pre-IPO options at $1/share. We opened at, what, $16/share, shot up to $50/share, then hovered in the 20s and 30s for a while, and I ignored it. Didn't give a damn. Then I vested, then I quit, and it was still in the 20s, iirc, and I just held onto it. I did complain a bit when it dipped below $1 and stayed there for a few years, 'cause I just wanted my money back, but I didn't obsessively watch the price and gripe every time it dropped again.

But now I'm at Amazon.com. Amazon.com likes to tell us how much money we're gonna make this year, what with all those wonderful options they've given us. This is why they feel ok to pay us so little, because, really, who needs a salary when you've got all these options and RSUs, and you're going to make $90k this year with all that, isn't it wonderful?

Except, Hi, $90k just became $84k. Except, no, $90k was based on the stock price at the time they printed up the little sheet saying how wonderful it was to work here because of all the money. So, it's 6k less than something else entirely.

And I bitch about this stuff, and people are all like "oh, stop complaining, you're still making a lot of money"... And they just don't get it. The dollar amount ISN'T THE IMPORTANT THING. Ok, it IS important, but it's not what I'm bitching about. I'm bitching about the bullshit. About the lack of respect for our basic intelligence. Hi, we can do math too! And we can read a graph of the stock price! And we know that the trading windows open about a week after earnings announcements and the stock ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS tanks right after an earnings announcement, and that YOU'RE COMPLETELY FULL OF SHIT PLEASE PUT THE FUCKING SHOVEL DOWN I'M FULL.

:pant pant pant growl pant pant:

[aquatwo.livejournal.com]

there was an old Doonesbury that i always remember whenever anyone mentions options.
Mike (to his daughter): "Do you know what stock options are?"
"Sure, They're lottery tickets, right?"
...

you have my sympathies about the stock tank... that really sucks... i've just never held any faith in stock options myself.

[loree.livejournal.com]

RSUs don't pay the mortgage if you can't sell them when you need the money the most. And your options are under water again? Gee, must be great to work for a company that makes you gamble with your own paycheck.

'Course, it's not like anywhere else is any better. It's an employers' market, and boy don't they know it.

[kerrizor.livejournal.com]

I agree with you, but still - stfu, you make a crap load of money.

[kerrizor.livejournal.com]

See how much poker I play, I obviously don't mind gambling, its just that I want slightly better odds.

[dustin-00.livejournal.com]

Time to start flinging poo.

[(Anonymous)]

Did you know you don't have to be subject to the trading window, as long as you don't look at metrics? It's surprising that so few people realize that. I'm an engineer at amazon and I trade anytime I want. If you attempt to place a trade outside the window, they actually look at whether you have logged in to certain reporting applications i nthe last 90 days. That is the only criteria.

Which isn't always good. I sold a bunch of stock at $22 outside the window and then watched it hit $60 inside the next window. Gah.