If you mean waiting until the bankruptcy proceedings are over, then waiting isn't always necessary. Lots of investors make high risk investments to companies in bankruptcy with bridge funds to carry them through the process.
The "under no circumstances" clause is not necessarily the case. If it's a large enough company and investors can get their investments to be senior debt, then it can be a reasonable, if still high risk investment. If the bankruptcy occurs, they'll be first in line to get paid out of the remaining assets, even if they don't get everything back. If it doesn't occur, they've got a nice high yield bond. Basically there are ways for investors to make money investing in a company at any point, if done the right way. And probably equally many, or more, ways to lose money.
In the case of Hertz? Yeah, buying their stock when it went meme doesn't look like a very smart move right now. Of course the bankruptcy plan might be amended to slow redemption of old stock into new stock post-bankruptcy, but I'd say that's success by pure luck rather than anything else.
The "under no circumstances" clause is not necessarily the case. If it's a large enough company and investors can get their investments to be senior debt, then it can be a reasonable, if still high risk investment. If the bankruptcy occurs, they'll be first in line to get paid out of the remaining assets, even if they don't get everything back. If it doesn't occur, they've got a nice high yield bond. Basically there are ways for investors to make money investing in a company at any point, if done the right way. And probably equally many, or more, ways to lose money.
In the case of Hertz? Yeah, buying their stock when it went meme doesn't look like a very smart move right now. Of course the bankruptcy plan might be amended to slow redemption of old stock into new stock post-bankruptcy, but I'd say that's success by pure luck rather than anything else.