my worst case for this sort of thing is AT&T. And it's really bad.

My grandparents bought AT&T before the breakup of Ma Bell.

I think they split off a few of their shares into an UGMA ostensibly to pay for my college.

I graduated college in the late 80s. I learned of the UGMA back in the mid-90s. Grandma decided it wasn't fair to give me all the money and my brother none, so it was split in half and then transferred to me.

At the time of the transfer, I received AT&T, BLS (one baby bell), Lucent, and a mutual fund that I think was used to capture dividends.

AT&T spun out AT&T wireless (AWE), which got bought out by BLS and SBC communications to form Cingular.

BLS bought AT&T.

Lucent spun out several companies, and what was left merged with Alcatel and then bought by Nokia.

Somehow I got ownership in Comcast as a result as well.

In many cases, I had to sell fractional shares as a result of different M&A activites.

at home I've got a big spreadsheet and one tab tracks where all the little pieces of AT&T went.

I've come to the conclusion that consistency is what is needed. THe big question in my mind is that $400.