RE:Legacy Management and Staff Party Like 1999 The losses shareholders are realizing right now are not mgmts doing and the employees of these companies should not get their annual Christmas party cancelled as a result.
All E&P companies are experiencing these dramatic losses in equity value b/c of the price of oil. LEG isn't going broke so they need employees. They need to motivate these people over the coming months to take pay cuts, lay off slips, etc. These employees now have options that are worthless for quite some time and performance shares that are also not worth much. I'm not talking about upper level mgmt. Mid and lower level mgmt and employees are who I'm talking about. You want the company to cancel the annual Christmas party because of the share price falling? So take everything away from their employees right at a time when they are stressed about whether they'll have a job or make any money in 2015? That comment is idiotic.
The losses you are realizing are minimal to the losses employees of energy companies are feeling right now. Lots of these people have 90%> of their net worth in the companies they work for and may be out of jobs in the next few months and as an investor you should have a much smaller portion of your capital at risk in the energy space. Plus, if you don't work in the energy space you at least have a job to go to in a few months.