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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sold more than $1B worth of stock this week

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Re: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sold more than $1B worth of stock this week

#61

Post by whatyoucantsay »

swendoog wrote: post #42
adventured wrote: post #7

$94.6 billion net worth at present per Bloomberg. I know he is basically guaranteed to be running all of these sales off a sale schedule set far in advance for obvious reasons. However, I'd probably be doubling up those $1 billion sales until/unless this market gives out. Raising $6 or $10 billion - enough to fund Blue Origin for maybe a decade - by selling out of a $94 billion base, sure beats doing the same out of…

I can't help but wonder what it's like to have that kind of money. Does such a person ever wake up, and wonder how the dice rolled so amazingly in their favor? Or do they wake up and stand proud, recognizing that they are so successful because of their own hard work and intelligence? Do they ever think about how insane life is that they ended up with 94 billion, while some people are starving? I'm not making any mora…

> Does such a person ever wake up, and wonder how the dice rolled so amazingly in their favor?

More likely they wake up thinking about how to further weight dice rolls into their favour, even those stretching years into the future.

Re: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sold more than $1B worth of stock this week

#62

Post by losteverything »

swendoog wrote: post #42
adventured wrote: post #7

$94.6 billion net worth at present per Bloomberg. I know he is basically guaranteed to be running all of these sales off a sale schedule set far in advance for obvious reasons. However, I'd probably be doubling up those $1 billion sales until/unless this market gives out. Raising $6 or $10 billion - enough to fund Blue Origin for maybe a decade - by selling out of a $94 billion base, sure beats doing the same out of…

I can't help but wonder what it's like to have that kind of money. Does such a person ever wake up, and wonder how the dice rolled so amazingly in their favor? Or do they wake up and stand proud, recognizing that they are so successful because of their own hard work and intelligence? Do they ever think about how insane life is that they ended up with 94 billion, while some people are starving? I'm not making any mora…

I'm just genuinely curious what it feels like to be in their shoes.

The contemplation of this question satisfies ones need for introspection. Whether it's Bezos, or someone you are not there is great value in trying to answer this.

Struggle and pain and want is cleansing. Constant success can be a house of cards for children.

Wealth, enormous, is a burden. Just making it is freedom. Imo.

As he cant understand our life anymore we cant understand his.

Re: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sold more than $1B worth of stock this week

#63

Post by KGIII »

loeg wrote: post #22
jbusma wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Provided the security/asset is held for a year or more, it is taxed as Long-Term Capital Gains, and given quite the tax break. It is even possible to pay 0% federal rate on sale of stock, I did it on my 2016 return.

> It is even possible to pay 0% federal rate on sale of stock, I did it on my 2016 return. Up to the top of the 15% bracket, yes, or $37,950 in total income for single earners in 2017 ($75,900 joint). It's easy to pay little in long-term cap. gains taxes if you are retired (or unemployed) with a cheap-to-moderate lifestyle. But not possible for ~$1 billion in gains, like Bezos' sale :-).

It is also possible that he never realized the gain. An example would be to gift the shares directly to a trust which sells and then 'loans' BO the money. Tada! You made a billion dollars disappear. That is, I believe, lawful. Consult a qualified legal representative, however.

Re: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sold more than $1B worth of stock this week

#64

Post by leetbulb »

jaxn wrote: post #51
swendoog wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't help but wonder what it's like to have that kind of money. Does such a person ever wake up, and wonder how the dice rolled so amazingly in their favor? Or do they wake up and stand proud, recognizing that they are so successful because of their own hard work and intelligence? Do they ever think about how insane life is that they ended up with 94 billion, while some people are starving? I'm not making any mora…

There are people in the world who’s life would be more transformed by your wealth than your’s would be by Bezos’. How did you wake up this morning? Also not making a moral projection here. We just tend to look up instead of down.

Extremely well said.

Re: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sold more than $1B worth of stock this week

#65

Post by lovich »

jliptzin wrote: post #56
sudhirj wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To prevent any accusations of insider trading, these sales tend to be announced months in advance and scheduled, so any movements on the sale day are more likely to be naieve investors reacting.

Yea but they can cancel those trades at any time. They can set up a weekly sale of a huge chunk of stock, cancel it every week while the company is doing fine, then right before a terrible quarter hits, allow the sale to go through. This does not stop insider trading.

Is it that simple? I thought the SEC didn't fuck around just because people found a loophole, like with them recently classifying ICOs as securities

Re: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sold more than $1B worth of stock this week

#66

Post by loeg »

KGIII wrote: post #63
loeg wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is even possible to pay 0% federal rate on sale of stock, I did it on my 2016 return. Up to the top of the 15% bracket, yes, or $37,950 in total income for single earners in 2017 ($75,900 joint). It's easy to pay little in long-term cap. gains taxes if you are retired (or unemployed) with a cheap-to-moderate lifestyle. But not possible for ~$1 billion in gains, like Bezos' sale :-).

It is also possible that he never realized the gain. An example would be to gift the shares directly to a trust which sells and then 'loans' BO the money. Tada! You made a billion dollars disappear. That is, I believe, lawful. Consult a qualified legal representative, however.

One problem with this plan is that the debtor is obligated to repay the principal with interest.

If billionaires could do this, they would be doing it all the time. And the IRS would be screaming about it. Instead, they're stuck with higher risk options like illegal tax evasion or just paying the tax they owe.

Re: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sold more than $1B worth of stock this week

#67

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

lovich wrote: post #65
jliptzin wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea but they can cancel those trades at any time. They can set up a weekly sale of a huge chunk of stock, cancel it every week while the company is doing fine, then right before a terrible quarter hits, allow the sale to go through. This does not stop insider trading.

Is it that simple? I thought the SEC didn't fuck around just because people found a loophole, like with them recently classifying ICOs as securities

The general advice I've heard is not to do this sort of thing. It's a loophole and when the SEC inevitably catches you, you are boned.

If it's obviously a loophole to you and me, then what do you imagine the SEC think?

Re: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sold more than $1B worth of stock this week

#68

Post by thisisit »

prewett wrote: post #26

My initial question was how did he sell $1B and not affect the share price substantially. And sure enough, the share price did drop a bit. But average trading volume is about 2 billion shares, which is about $2B. It's pretty crazy that the market has so much liquidity that $2B of AMZN changes hands every day, and that it could soak up a $1B sale and barely change the price.

Because of the order type.

Market Orders soak up all the liquidity as they need to be executed at the best price available. So, if the price is at $10 and I dump a huge amount of shares, it will go through the bids..$10, $9.9, $9.8...you get the idea.

Limit Orders kind of provide liquidity. It doesn't execute unless a certain condition is met. So I can dump a large sell at $10, it won't change the price. Anyone in the market can bid into $10 and buy shares if they want.

So, trading volume doesn't matter, order type matters. If Bezos had dumped his shares in open market it would cause the price to change dramatically. People will take it as a sign and jump out like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

Most of these trades are pre-planned and are limit orders.

The data has not been updated for the November sells you can see all the Amazon insider trades here (including the March selling noted in the article): http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/amzn/insider-trades

Most are automatic sell and are pre planned. Disposition are trades which are off market transaction, selling or buying, directly with the company.

Re: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sold more than $1B worth of stock this week

#69

Post by justinjlynn »

aqsheehy wrote: post #29
prewett wrote: post #26

My initial question was how did he sell $1B and not affect the share price substantially. And sure enough, the share price did drop a bit. But average trading volume is about 2 billion shares, which is about $2B. It's pretty crazy that the market has so much liquidity that $2B of AMZN changes hands every day, and that it could soak up a $1B sale and barely change the price.

Markets are efficient

In the large? Yes, generally and generically speaking they are excellent at pricing in the very short term. On the small they have all sorts of failure modes and perversions - there is no such thing as "the market" there are, however, market conditions in any given area which may or may not follow certain patterns of activity.

Re: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sold more than $1B worth of stock this week

#70

Post by dingaling »

loeg wrote: post #66
KGIII wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is also possible that he never realized the gain. An example would be to gift the shares directly to a trust which sells and then 'loans' BO the money. Tada! You made a billion dollars disappear. That is, I believe, lawful. Consult a qualified legal representative, however.

One problem with this plan is that the debtor is obligated to repay the principal with interest. If billionaires could do this, they would be doing it all the time. And the IRS would be screaming about it. Instead, they're stuck with higher risk options like illegal tax evasion or just paying the tax they owe.

But the interest rate between two private parties is entirely arbitrary. 0.01% over 25 years, say.
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