A lesson in greed - KODK

August 07, 2020 | Jeremy Goldfarb


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If you were at the cottage unplugging for a couple of weeks, you would have missed this one....and that's a good thing. A quick lesson on greed and the casino-like characteristics that trading can exhibit from time to time. (I said trading, not investing!!)

 

Eastman Kodak, the company that most of us will think makes cameras and film ----  (they're still around??) ---  saw it's share price rise precipitously on news that it had finalized a contract with the US government to make drug ingredients at its US factories. Soooooo.....they don't make film anymore, now they make drugs? sure.....

 

The Story

Anyhow, the stock went from $2/share to $60/share basically overnight, and this was driven by the news above and some insider trade disclosure as well as sentiment fervor. As it turns out, the news far outweighed reality and the stock has since cratered back down to $16/share. This is still a meaningful gain from its starting point, but ask the folks that got in at $30 and $45/share how they feel. Now the SEC is involved and we all know how most of those stories conclude. 

 

A valuable lesson for those who paid the price. A valuable lesson for those who were asleep long enough to miss it.