Exploring the stock market - Buyer beware !

Ahoy !

If you're starting to stack a bit of money, you might be wondering if the stock market is for you.

The stock market allows you to purchase shares (= parts) of a company, trading gold for future potential dividends (and/or a better share price when you sell later). That being said, the CEO (and potential other officers of the company) are completely in control of the business. As long as you're not a majority shareholder, anything could happen to the company, without your approval.

I've looked at 46 holding with some shares available on the stock market right now. I'm not exactly thrilled by what I've seen:

----- PART 1 : EMPTY SHELLS (LOOTED) -----

15 companies (almost 1/3 !) are empty shells that have been basically looted by their CEO at some point, either because their officers were dishonest, or because lots of shareholders went inactive and indirectly allowed a hostile takeover and looting by a new minority shareholder.

These include (but are not limited to): Hold my Comb, Aggakaka AB, Factories du Libertine, Golden Bird, GB Holdings, 12345, GmbH, E Company, and PTC - USA Extension. Several of these have been looted by citizens Yuno and xDesertHamsterx in february (looting displayed on March 1st financial report).

These companies are unlikely to ever recover, because they've been emptied. Purchasing shares there is literally throwing gold away.

----- PART 2 : ALMOST PRIVATE COMPANIES -----

7 companies have very few shareholders and/or very few shares for sales. They are basically private companies that somehow got a few shares for sales, but you're unlikely to ever get a say in their management and getting dividends is unlikely. These companies can be used for storage space for governments/militias/other entities.

A similar number of companies are a bit more open, but not much. They were kinda open at some point (they have a decent amount of shareholders) but right now the amount of shares for sale is very limited. They are also generally not generating a lot of gold, meaning dividends will be fairly limited.

----- PART 3 : ABSURDLY DILUTED COMPANIES -----

More or less 10 companies are fairly open and hold decent assets, but have absurd dilution. AKA at some point, their shareholders decided to split shares over and over, or to create new ones in unreasonable amounts. The company is generally alright, but due to the dilution (very high number of shares), the profit per share is extremely small and their shares become much too expensive for what they bring.

----- CONCLUSIONS -----

Less than 5 companies among those observed seem reasonably interesting, and it doesn't mean they're safe investments. After all, their officers can screw you over at some point if they decide to. But company financials do not show evidence of them screwing people in the past.

It's hard for me to strongly recommend one to invest into, considering I don't know their officers, and considering the lack of accountability from officers in the game.

I believe shares can be an interesting way to invest into people you personally know, personally or as an entity (militia / government...), that's it.

I also believe the stock market could really benefit from people being able to setup "purchase orders" (like the currency market) to indicate they'd be willing to get existing shares (not new ones) for a price. A more accurate system of permissions could help too (aka forbidding any company officer from selling/giving away companies, at the bare minimum) to limit looting risks.