In case you were wondering, any shares you have in General Motors (Stock Quote: GM) are now worthless, or nearly so. And there’s no chance they’ll recover.
It’s a bit confusing, since news of GM’s bankruptcy refers to shares owned by the government and the union for the car maker’s employees.
Eventually, much of that stock, especially portions in the government’s hands, will be sold to the public. It will make its way into small investors’ accounts, either as direct stock purchases or through mutual funds.
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But in a bankruptcy, new shares like these replace the old ones.
It may seem unfair. Why should shareholders be wiped out when the bankruptcy court works so hard to protect the creditors, like investors who own the company’s bonds?
It’s because, as the firm’s owners, it’s the shareholders who owe money to the creditors. If you owned a corner grocery store that went bankrupt, the building and everything in it could be sold to pay your bills. This is the same.
Fortunately for stockholders, the liability is limited to the value of their shares. The bankrupt firm’s creditors cannot go after your house, savings or other assets.
For investors, the key lesson of this or any other bankruptcy is: don’t put too many eggs in one basket. Obviously, individual stocks can be very volatile. But when one stock collapses, others may soar. Diversifying, or spreading your money among many stocks, smoothes the bumps in the road.
GM shares have fallen more than 76 percent since the start of the year, while the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average, of includes GM until June 8, is about where it was when the year began.
