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Awesome thanks for sharing.

While working at Boeing, their EPP allowed you to purchase Boeing Stock, or invest in a managed fund. This was post 9/11 so their stock was hurting, so I invested 90% into their stock.

These days in the startup world, folks are given Restricted Options, which don't offer a lot of flexibility.

Even with a public event, employees have a 180 day lockup period before they can sell any vested options.




   > Even with a public event, employees have a 180 day 
   > lockup period before they can sell any vested options.
It varies, when I was acquired in 1999 we could choose to dispose up to half our proceeds, it was negotiated as part of the deal. I also had an insane 18 month lockout which took me from pre-crash to post-crash and a 144x difference in stock price ($120/share vs $0.83/share)


I've always wondered about that. Isn't there some way you can hedge against that possibility, say, by buying puts? Or is that forbidden by contract?

I had a friend who worked at one of the early e-retailers. During the lockout period she was a multimillionaire (on paper), and by the time it ended her options were under water. It made me wonder if you could give up part of your potential payday for a little certainty.




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