Sad thing is that if I had sold all of mine on the last day I could exercise them, I would be in a different category.
But what are you going to do, that's super risky. No regrets.
Poll: How much money have stock options brought you?
11–20 of 72 posts
Re: Poll: How much money have stock options brought you?
#12You should add options for negative quantities too. You can pay money to exercise options and never get that money back.
Re: Poll: How much money have stock options brought you?
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
They mean ESOs or RSUs
RSU's are different that stock options, no? I answered zero as I have never had anything come from options, while RSUs have been very nice.
yes, they are. What I meant to get it is that the OP is probably talking about equity-based employment benefit programs, not trading options in the open market.
Re: Poll: How much money have stock options brought you?
#14There should be an additional choice for people who have options but aren't able to cash them out yet.
That would offer a view into the percentage of people who stay at a startup long enough to exercise their options.
Re: Poll: How much money have stock options brought you?
#15My stock options are reportedly worth $230 but I'd hate to think how much I would have to pay to get the money into the UK, probably not worth it.
Re: Poll: How much money have stock options brought you?
#16Perhaps this is the wrong question, there are "how much money did you make on your options" and there is "How much money would you have made if you had sold them when they were worth the most?"
You see I had some Sun stock left over from working there (about 8,000 shares) which at $60 a share in 1999 was $480,000, but after a reverse 3:1 split and selling them at $6 each in the Oracle merger they only netted me about $16,000. I "could" have sold them when they were $480,000 but I didn't. Not as severe a challenge as some folks in the dot com implosion but its something I think about from time to time.
If you ask what was the most money your options were worth on paper you get another (often higher) number. So if you were a Zynga employee on the day they went public you had some big value that they were worth but you couldn't sell until much later, and much later they were worth much less.
I owned 30,000 shares (common, not preferred) in a startup that I advised which when it was acquired only met the liquidation preference for the preferred (common stock ended up being worthless). At the last round of funding it was 'valued' at about $150,000 though. :-)
The bottom line is you can drive yourself crazy with possibilities if you aren't careful.
Re: Poll: How much money have stock options brought you?
#17Perhaps this is the wrong question, there are "how much money did you make on your options" and there is "How much money would you have made if you had sold them when they were worth the most?" You see I had some Sun stock left over from working there (about 8,000 shares) which at $60 a share in 1999 was $480,000, but after a reverse 3:1 split and selling them at $6 each in the Oracle merger they only netted me about…
Ultimately the only question that matters is how much money was made. Dwelling on fantasies is immaterial (until you can sell or find a way to lock in the price, the market price has no bearing on your actual value).
In your example, you can say whatever you want about how it was worth more than you actually netted, but at the end of the day all that matters is the fact that you realized 16K
Re: Poll: How much money have stock options brought you?
#18You should add options for negative quantities too. You can pay money to exercise options and never get that money back.
Indeed. As well as perhaps an poll selection for options you've exercised but do not know yet what you'll get for them (company still running but haven't had opportunity to sell shares).
Re: Poll: How much money have stock options brought you?
#19Ha, ha, ha, stock options. Heh.
Re: Poll: How much money have stock options brought you?
#20You should add options for negative quantities too. You can pay money to exercise options and never get that money back.
You can also get really nailed on AMT depending upon timing, even in situations where the stock ends up underwater and worthless before you can be rid of it.