Markets moving to new highs so what!

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has finally moved up past the previous highs achieved in January 2000. The buzz in the media has been deafening the hype about the DOW has been building as the index approaches the “big round figure” of 12,000. These round numbers tend to attract like a magnet as soon as they are with in sticking distance so do not be surprised when this happens next week.

The reality is who cares it has taken the DOW over 6.5 years to get back to the levels last seen in 2000 and the NASDAQ is nowhere near the previous highs. It will likely be a number of years yet before those extreme levels are achieved again. The technology sector is going to have to come clean regarding the abuse and manipulation of the stock option granting process and how that abuse has been at the expense of shareholder value over the long term.

The enrichment of management has been at the direct expense of shareholders and investors should be taking theses companies to task for their greed. The massive amount of share buy backs that have taken place over the past few years just to reduce the impact of the massive option granting scheme has cost shareholders dearly as they did not receive the dividends or capital appreciation that they should have.

Then to ad insult to injury we find out that not only did the management of these companies issue themselves excessive amounts of options but if the prices went against them they just backdated and reset the strike price so that they could continue to enrich themselves. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to buy stock by backdating you purchase price too.

These companies have treated their shareholders with contempt and shareholders should now do likewise.

For more information go to www.campbellreport.com