She had simply accumulated her shares by working many years and by participating in company savings plans. Her share holdings increased each time the stock split, which it has done four times since 1995. She had the good fortune and smarts to join one of the oldest high tech companies in America, a primo bastion of intellectual capital. So it could be said that she had lost nearly half a million dollars between Labor Day and Christmas. Unfortunately, Lottery Effect has also has a dark side.
Some stocks go down.
Some disappear altogether. Many companies contribute shares of their own stock as employer matching contributions to 401k plans. That s a loss of 86 percent. It also means that every share of JCP held in the companies 401k plan is now worth pennies on the dollar. Rank and file employees, who number some 291,000, have lost millions.