Stock Market, companies are buying back their shares, results???

It would be rather hard for a corporation to buy back all of the shares.
Remember, the fewer shares are outstanding, the greater ownership interest the remaining shares have in the company.
I suppose it might theoretically be possible, if the corporation caught all its shareholders off guard and simultaneously offered them a purchase price they couldn't refuse, and none of the shareholders realized the full scale of the buy-back. The corporation would essentially be owned by the board at that point.

 

Like Dell?

 

I am not familiar with the situation that happened with that company.

I doubt all the shares were bought back. Probably the original founder's shares were just converted into an ownership stake.

 

Michael Dell took the company private in 2013, but I read some time ago he was considering an IPO or purchase by another public traded entity of which he is a major stock holder.

My background being unix based and a Linux user, I find Dell products very desirable from a compatibility point of view.

 

In this case if a company in which he was a major shareholder bought 51% of Dell, that company would have effective ownership of it. A controlling stake.
He himself wouldn't because he was only a major shareholder in the purchasing company and not it's sole owner.

Ideally, I don't want to own 100% of the company.
I just want a large enough stake to control all the money.
In this way I get control over other peoples money.

 

Looks like another blood-bath out there. This could be the first year since the recession when the DOW actually declines. We are currently 1300 points below January numbers.

 

I don't think that a 5% decline this calendar year, or a less than 10% drop from all-time highs can reasonably be called a blood-bath or be an indication of an impending blood-bath. That isn't to say that there won't be a significant correction one day but predictions of impending doom are 10 a penny.

 

We have been in correction territory practically all year. That is not normal.

 

Looking at the Dow for the last 5 years this year is pretty much the same pattern as in 2014 and 2015, quite volatile with little overall change. I'm sure that if I could be bothered I'd find lots of similar cases further back.

 

2014 was a good year with 9% increase. 2015 was the only year in the past 9 years which was not a good year, but it was not volatile, it was flat. Lot of people thought the bull had ran its course, but then it picked up again.

 

What do you mean it wasn't volatile in 2015 ?

Started the year at 18000
Dropped more than 5% by end of Jan
Back up again by late March
Traded in a narrowish range until early July
Dropped more than 10% by early September
Back up to nearly 18000 by early November
Back close to 17000 mid November
Up close to 18000 soon thereafter
Before dropping below 16000 in Jan 2016

 

I did not remember it that way, but I'll take your word for it.

I don't see a 5% drop in Jan thought....

January 2, 2015
17,832.99
January 9, 2015
17,737.37
January 16, 2015
17,511.57
January 23, 2015
17,672.60
January 30, 2015
17,164.95
February 6, 2015
17,824.29
February 13, 2015
18,019.35
February 20, 2015
18,140.44
February 27, 2015
18,132.70
March 6, 2015
17,856.78
March 13, 2015
17,749.31
March 20, 2015
18,127.65
March 27, 2015
17,712.66
April 2, 2015
17,763.24
April 10, 2015
18,057.65
April 17, 2015
17,826.30
April 24, 2015
18,080.14
May 1, 2015
18,024.06
May 8, 2015
18,191.11
May 15, 2015
18,272.56
May 22, 2015
18,232.02
May 29, 2015
18,010.68
June 5, 2015
17,849.46
June 12, 2015
17,898.84
June 19, 2015
18,015.95
June 26, 2015
17,946.68
July 2, 2015
17,730.11
July 10, 2015
17,730.11
July 17, 2015
18,086.45
July 24, 2015
17,568.53
July 31, 2015
17,689.86
August 7, 2015
17,373.38
August 14, 2015
17,477.40
August 21, 2015
16,459.75
August 28, 2015
16,643.01
September 4, 2015
16,102.38
September 11, 2015
16,433.09
September 18, 2015
16,384.58
September 25, 2015
16,314.67
October 2, 2015
16,472.37
October 9, 2015
17,084.49
October 16, 2015
17,215.97
October 23, 2015
17,646.70
October 30, 2015
17,663.54
November 6, 2015
17,910.33
November 13, 2015
17,245.24
November 20, 2015
17,823.81
November 27, 2015
17,813.39
December 4, 2015
17,847.63
December 11, 2015
17,265.21
December 18, 2015
17,128.55
December 24, 2015
17,552.17
December 31, 2015
17,425.03

 

Sorry, I was comparing 26 December (18 053) to 30 January (17 164)

 

No worries. We agree 2015 was not a good year.

 

DJIA 2015
Start Jan 02 - 17,832,99
End Dec 31 - 17,425.03
Hi May 19 - 18,312.39
Lo Aug 25 - 15,666.44
A good year for some, a bad year for others.
Depends on how you work the market, or let the market work you.

 

Bloodbath continues......

NASDAQ got hammered. Lost 4.4% in a day, and is now way down from the peaks.

DOW dropped another 600+ points, and is down over 2000 points.

 

That's still less than 10% for the Dow. Typically a sustained drop of 20% would be considered the entry point for a bear market - an uncomfortable thing, but not an unprecedented thing.

Don't get me wrong, if you're heavily invested in the market, especially on margin, then it's already bad news but we're not in "OMFG we're dooooooooooooooomed !!!!!11!!1!1!!" territory yet. That's not to say we won't get there but I think it's too early to be declaring the collapse of the stock market just now.

 

We are more than 10% down from January numbers.

In the other hand, I guess we knew it was coming.

Not doomed, but a bummer for most 401K savers.

 

I guess it depends on what your buying strategy is and when you're planning to cash out.

If you're someone who invests regularly ($x per month or whatever) and you're not planning on needing your long term investment for many years, then this is an opportunity to reduce your overall buy-in price. So long as there isn't a permanent revaluation of the market *, then by the time you need the money the market will have recovered (and likely been through several bull/bear cycles in the meantime). Even the Great Depression wasn't that bad so long as you can take a decades-long perspective.

On the other hand if today's the day you were going to roll your investments into an annuity to fund your retirement then it would suck. Then again many years ago I was advised that you should gradually de-risk your investment portfolio in the years approaching retirement for exactly that reason. While you may miss out on some gains, you insulate yourself against the worst of the potential losses.

* - if there is a massive shift in the investment paradigm and the market suddenly decides that stocks are only worth 50% or 25% or 10% of their previous values because of a fundamental change in the way that companies are valued then that's a completely different matter and the markets and economy would be in complete turmoil.

 

I know that this is going to sound like a strange question.........
but is it possible that a significant percentage of Wall Street investors do believe that
a boom is coming.....?

https://www.sordrescue.com/uploads/4/7/7/9/47798703/04-28-11_commander_in_chief.pdf

Mark Taylor:

 

Oh man, that is SO SICK! Trump favored by God? What more do you need to know to realize that the man and his "god" are total frauds. Trump is well known now for being a racist, a crude misogynist, a liar, emotionally damaged, a narcissist, a traitor, a bully, and a cheater. What "god" would favor him? Only a fake one.

No, investors mostly follow a list of indicators and invest on business facts when the indicators are favorable. A crackpot's fake religionism would only matter to about half of a percent of investors.

 

I am certainly no psychologist but......
there are indicators that President Trump may be far, far, far, far more "Libertarian" than he tends to get credit for?




Is President Trump quite "Libertarian?"

Is President Trump more Libertarian than most Democrats?

1. *
   Yes
   5 vote(s)
   50.0%
2. 
   No
   5 vote(s)
   50.0%
3. 
   I am not sure.... but I do hope so?!
   0 vote(s)
   0.0%

Change Your Vote

 

Much of the recent stock buy-backs were due to the GOP tax changes favoring corporations...a trillion$+ of cash became available and much of it was spent on stock buy-backs and dividends...

 

One portion of a multiyear trend in debt financed stock purchases

 

As long as a company has a solid forecast and money is cheap, stock buy-backs or special dividends that are debt financed makes some sense. I think these financial moves are rooted in public companies 'forced' to deal with shareholder demands and not necessarily good solid standard business practices...this is one of the downsides of becoming a public company...