Reply #35: It is sustainable, IMO, as long as a rally will support the valuations they want.

[ozymandius]

They, being the company, wants stock values that will immunize them against a run on their stock. We have seen how rogue traders, hedge funds and investment banks can team up to drive down a company's stock price. This makes a company vulnerable to a hostile takeover. It can also put them out of business.

If a stock is mostly privately held, but traded publicly in select quantities, the price per share can be engineered. This is not a foolproof plan - but it can work for awhile. It can even defy the fundamentals when a company is unhealthy. For example: why is no publicly traded bank, as a recipient of public funds to stay afloat, not trading for one cent per share? Or worthless?

My opinion weighs heaviest on the thought that trading averages frequently mock the actual economic performance of key companies as they relate directly to the real economy. P/E ratios and 10k reports show a clearer picture of any individual company. Not the stock price.