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I think many people on HN may be too young to remember the early 2000s, when you’d kill someone for your stock price to be down only 60% over 3 years, but it ab

I think many people on HN may be too young to remember the early 2000s, when you’d kill someone for your stock price to be down only 60% over 3 years, but it absolutely happens to good companies too.

overrun11 5y ago
You aren't guaranteed your salary either though and in many of those cases in the 2000's workers were laid off. Being paid entirely in cash salary doesn't make you immune to market turbulence.
srb4 5y ago
I thought I was going to be rich with my first job at a startup out of college but the dot com bust basically made it all worthless. Stock is great but cash would have been better.
- pb7 5y ago
  What would you have done with the cash? Hold it? That’s how the poor stay poor.
alisonkisk 5y ago
It happened 1 year in 20, after an incredible run up, and good companies recovered.
rco8786 5y ago
We can talk about normal expectations without having to explicitly state that black swan events can happen. If you took a stance of “I’m not going to take any pay in equity because I saw what happened in 2001” you would have left millions of dollars on the table over the last 20 years.
- JohnHaugeland 5y ago
  I think that once you start looking for hard evidence on software company stocks, you're in for a learning experience.
  - rco8786 5y ago
    ? I’ve been in this industry for…a while. I watched people around me packing up their cubicles in 2001. What is it that you think I am missing? Genuine question because I’m not sure how to interpret your comment at all. Tech stocks have had strong growth as a sector for about 2 decades. Even if they hadn’t, even if they had been flat for 20 years, companies are still paying out $100k+ a year in equity (in addition to base salary).
- intuitionist 5y ago
  Stocks underperforming cash for three years is hardly a black swan event; it happens in about a fifth of 3-year periods.
  - TheCoelacanth 5y ago
    Underperforming cash is very different than underperforming cash by 60%.
  - rco8786 5y ago
    I’m clearly talking about the early 00 market crash as the black swan. Some depreciation is expected to happen sometimes. Obviously.

overrun11 5y ago

You aren't guaranteed your salary either though and in many of those cases in the 2000's workers were laid off. Being paid entirely in cash salary doesn't make you immune to market turbulence.

srb4 5y ago

I thought I was going to be rich with my first job at a startup out of college but the dot com bust basically made it all worthless. Stock is great but cash would have been better.

pb7 5y ago
What would you have done with the cash? Hold it? That’s how the poor stay poor.

alisonkisk 5y ago

It happened 1 year in 20, after an incredible run up, and good companies recovered.

rco8786 5y ago

We can talk about normal expectations without having to explicitly state that black swan events can happen. If you took a stance of “I’m not going to take any pay in equity because I saw what happened in 2001” you would have left millions of dollars on the table over the last 20 years.

JohnHaugeland 5y ago
I think that once you start looking for hard evidence on software company stocks, you're in for a learning experience.
- rco8786 5y ago
  ? I’ve been in this industry for…a while. I watched people around me packing up their cubicles in 2001. What is it that you think I am missing? Genuine question because I’m not sure how to interpret your comment at all. Tech stocks have had strong growth as a sector for about 2 decades. Even if they hadn’t, even if they had been flat for 20 years, companies are still paying out $100k+ a year in equity (in addition to base salary).
intuitionist 5y ago
Stocks underperforming cash for three years is hardly a black swan event; it happens in about a fifth of 3-year periods.
- TheCoelacanth 5y ago
  Underperforming cash is very different than underperforming cash by 60%.
- rco8786 5y ago
  I’m clearly talking about the early 00 market crash as the black swan. Some depreciation is expected to happen sometimes. Obviously.