Thread by @Ritholtz

I updated yesterday's post on Overstock to include a long term chart comparing $OSTK with the S&P 500 Retail Composite (plus Amazon)

Its an amazing example of underperformance

ritholtz.com/2019/08/overst… 1/

Here is the first of two charts, this one in dollar terms:

$OSTK is effectively flat over 15 years, while the S&P Retail comp and Amazon have skyrocketed.

2/

It is even more damning to look at this in terms of percentages:

Amazon is the outlier, gaining 3270% over that decade and a half. A better comparison is the Retail comp, up 364.3% over that period.

And $OSTK? It was up 5.3% over 15 years, or about a third of 1% annually.

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Gee, I cannot imagine why these guys loved to talk about naked shorting and deep capture and the unfair press they got instead of growth and revenues and profits...

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It is a cautionary tale about the doggedness of a few courageous people -- Herb, Gary, Sam and others -- who refused to be intimidated when the rest of the media either went away or were bamboozled.

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Speaking which: I cannot imagine how The New York Times could cover his resignation and somehow omit the SEC investigations, accounting frauds and profit restatements; Perhaps @julie_creswell and
@CadeMetz can explain this

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Perhaps they should go into the NYT own archives to do some research via @opinion_joe

nytimes.com/2006/02/25/bus…

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I hope the takeaway from this entire sordid chapter in corporate misbehavior and malfeasance on the part of the MSM resonates in the future.

To paraphrase Carl Sagan, Outrageous claims require outrageous proof, and that was sadly lacking in the case of $OSTK.

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That the media was so easily fooled is a sign of our times; It was not "Fake News," just really difficulty + uncomfortable reporting.

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I have a sneaking suspicion we have not heard the last of this weird dumb company.

I suspect it ends with a criminal prosecution and then a pardon from President Trump.

That seems about right for this lot.

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