Your options under Chapter 11
Assuming a company of the stock you own declares Chapter 11 bankruptcy, what can you do?
First Option
One option is to stand pat and maintain your ownership in the stock. In an optimal scenario, the company could negotiate a deal with its creditors under bankruptcy protection laws, reorganize and recover, and/or receive emergency funding from investors (or from the government, in rare instances, as was the case during the financial crisis for the banking and automobile industry).
Stockholders may be asked by the court-appointed trustee to exchange current stock holdings for new shares in the reorganized company. The trustee may send back new shares that have less proportional ownership in the reorganized company. The trustee will also inform existing shareholders of their new rights, and if anything is expected to be received from the company.
Typically, a company operating under bankruptcy laws will no longer qualify for listing on major exchanges like the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange. It is likely to be delisted from those major exchanges, and it may continue to trade on the OTC Bulletin Board (OTCBB) or Pink Sheets. OTCBB/Pink Sheets is a service that allows companies (typically those that are penny stocks or foreign companies who are not listed on a major exchange) to trade, and there are no reporting requirements for these companies. In this event, the stock symbol will be a 5-letter ticker symbol that ends in "Q."
For example, General Motors declared bankruptcy on June 1, 2009, the old shares were delisted from the NYSE on June 2. The original shares that were listed under the symbol GM began trading on the OTCBB/Pink Sheets as Motors Liquidation Company GMGMQ (the current ticker symbol for the old shares is MTLQQ). A new entity was created on July 10, 2009—with the aid of the US government—to acquire the operational assets of the company. General Motors completed their IPO in 2010, and the new shares now trade under the original GM ticker symbol.
Second Option
In addition to maintaining ownership, another option is to attempt to sell the shares—likely at a significant loss relative to the initial investment. If you determine that the existing company is unlikely to emerge from bankruptcy (or even if it might, that the existing shares will be deemed worthless), this may be the best option.
It is worth noting that one problem for this option is the difficulty finding a buyer at a desirable price or at all, given the significant risks associated with these investments.