Since there are companies that have existed for centuries, the criteria for “least volatile” should probably be something other than S&P 500. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies#1650_to_1699 A company being German or Japanese seems to be almost mandatory. Should Alcor relocate to Berlin?
89.4% of the companies with more than 100 years of history are businesses employing fewer than 300 people.
Be careful about reading too much into that—“Large enterprises, those with 250 or greater employment, accounted for only 0.4 per cent of all enterprises.” according to the ONS. You’d expect to see 89.4% small companies by chance alone, although I concede that if a company is around for 100 years you might expect it to grow into a large company by inertia alone.
With respect to your other point, you are absolutely right—I wanted to show my working here to indicate how badly wrong back-of-the-envelope calculations can go in situations like this.
Since there are companies that have existed for centuries, the criteria for “least volatile” should probably be something other than S&P 500. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies#1650_to_1699 A company being German or Japanese seems to be almost mandatory. Should Alcor relocate to Berlin?
89.4% of the companies with more than 100 years of history are businesses employing fewer than 300 people.
Be careful about reading too much into that—“Large enterprises, those with 250 or greater employment, accounted for only 0.4 per cent of all enterprises.” according to the ONS. You’d expect to see 89.4% small companies by chance alone, although I concede that if a company is around for 100 years you might expect it to grow into a large company by inertia alone.
With respect to your other point, you are absolutely right—I wanted to show my working here to indicate how badly wrong back-of-the-envelope calculations can go in situations like this.