Is it a dumb idea to buy into my jobs ESPP bulk purchase right now?

Hello all! I work at a company that offers an ESPP bulk purchase of up to $25k per year at a 15% discount. I did this last year when things didn’t feel so rocky in the stock market and make a few grand, and would like to take advantage of this benefit again. However, with how weird the stock market seems to be behaving since February, I’m a little bit scared to do it.

Our ESPP works like this example: Friday Jan 5th is the lump sum purchase deadline

Thursday Jan 11th is the offering period (grant date)

Wednesday Jan 14th is the purchase date

I believe we can sell almost immediately after the purchase date but I can’t exactly recall.

My concern is that I’ll drop $25k into the stock market and something stupid will cause the stock to drop. Back in April it dropped $65 because of the volatility of the tariff talk and took about a month and a half to recover again. I know that the stock market cannot be timed and it cannot be predicted. I just want to know if right now this would be something YOU would do or not. I’m not in a position to sit on $25k worth of stock for months at a time, so I’d like to buy and sell quickly. I just hate that it takes weeks for it all to go through.

Posted Jul 8, 2025, 4:42 PM UTC

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