You're absolutely out to lunch... after all these posts you're still not on board that it's a long DO/BP spread? DO: 57.21 bid AH BP: 29.05 bid AH bid to bid it's 28.16 to the buy. All I can say is wow, really?
no where near my worst day and maybe not even the worst day of the year but man it was painful. I bailed on BP stock at what at first appeared to be the LOD only to see it fall another dollar plus. I did move to options so I could still be in for some major pain but I am still at a loss for how BP would go BK. If someone can explain this (intelligently and with knowledge) that would be great. I can totally understand BP America MAY be at risk but that is separate from BP main as far as I know. could creditors go after BP in London?? maybe but then your dealing with a company with home field advantage in a legal system that is somewhat different than ours in terms of civil litigation (criminal as well but that plays very little role here) Today I read that BP is sending a ship from the North Sea to come and burn off excess oil. This is yet another example of why there is no leadership at BP. Why the fck is this ship not already here? I admit it, I looked past all the totally obvious signs that management has no clue how to handle a crisis and I really wonder what fcking meeting Mr. Hayward has in London that is a higher priority to having his ass on the command ship in the gulf????? In Texas there has GOTS to be some US Marine retired Colonels who know the oil business that could take charge of this operation. Unlike so called leaders that talk about kicking someones ass (about as threatening as my neighbors dog who would help a robber carry out the TV if you gave her a treat) if you put a couple jar heads in charge this thing would get fixed immediately if not sooner. Hopefully that ship that was ordered and was supposed to be here to help out with the current processing ship arrived in the gulf as expected today. I guess now they can start figuring out how to use is as I would guess based on everything else so far that they have not bothered to put a plan in place until it arrived. what a fcking joke and I am so mad that I allowed myself to get caught in this dividend trap. lesson learned and I will in the future when things get messed up as they seem to happen pretty often with companies make sure the management can think ahead more than one chess move at a time...... Best to everyone and good luck especially me as I lick my wounds from being drilled without lub my Mr. Hayward and company...
I found this about BP going Chapter 11. You probably have better understanding of this than me. Does chapter 11 mean that the stock may to zero? If the drop today was due to dividend cut, it probably isn't a big deal. Chapter 11 may be a much bigger issue.
Robert you've been warned many times. Bp the company will be ok but bp the stock is not ok. What you've done wrong is way underestimate the magnitude of the liability. we're talking possibly 100's of billions easy. bp will have no choice but to file bakruptcy like texaco did to shield themselves from this.just think of the millions of people bp has destroyed from businesses to fisherme to millions of homes that can't be rented now. this is a huge long term claim on bp's head
But the Texaco case was against Pennzoil and their all-star lawyer, wouldn't BP be closer to Exxon Valdez situation? And like XOM did, whatever punitive damage comes out to, couldn't they just tie it up in courts for 10+ years while appealing the ruling until they owe pennies on the dollar of the original cost? And if they cut dividends for a few years they would improve their cash flow by 10 billion a year, and that could fund the oil spill cleaning expenses, and legal expenses.
It is the political meddling that makes this interesting. When BP cuts the dividend so Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer can cut the deal for some consideration to be given to the ailing UK economy the stock reaches a bottom below economic value and reflects only the political reality. I want the assholes in our congress to pile on and count on it.
Could you explain how the liability can be any higher than the value of the US arm of BP. How exactly is the USA going to get any money from the non-USA branches of the company?
I do not think there is a bankruptcy risk, BP is large enough to handle whateverfines and liabilities it will be subject to (like Exxon) but that does not mean the earnings wont be hurt for years to come. The stock is tanking because people know that whatever earnings the company will make will be overrun by the expense of the clean up for years plus the fines and lawsuits. It took Exxon some time to recover. The oil lost is small compared to BPs operations. You do not go long the stock because no one knows where the liability will even begin since the crisis is not even over yet. Going long here is ignoring all these risks and assuming that the worst is over and BP should be back at $45 or higher. But what rationale is there for the stock price to go up? Who knows how revenues will be hurt and unknown means no buying and lots of shorting/unloading.