Old GM Shares: More Than Meets the Eye

Updated with news that GM will trade again on Wednesday.

Shares in old General Motors do have value, sort of, to somebody.

If you are a shareholder in old General Motors -- whose symbol was GM before becoming GMGMQ in bankruptcy -- which is now called Motors Liquidation Co., don't get your hopes up. The shares are still essentially worthless.

In fact, Finra, the financial industry regulatory authority, says it will allow trading in the shares to restart on Wednesday, after halting trading on Friday, but the agency restated General Motors' warning that the shares have no value. They will trade under a new symbol, MTLQQ.

The activity in the shares is masking an unusual bankruptcy court maneuver involving the shares' relationship to GM's effort to ensure that new GM obtains the $16 billion net operating loss associated with old GM.

Last week, GM indicated it had convinced the bankruptcy court to require that holders of 4.5% or more of the outstanding shares must notify the company of their ownership and take certain steps before making trades. GM attorneys don't want such sales to occur because that could hinder their delicately balanced transfer of the tax-loss carry forwards.

"Trading of large amounts of GM stock and options can negatively impact the ability to take advantage of these tax assets," the company said, in a prepared statement. "Associated with its Chapter 11 filing and efforts to preserve the value of its assets, General Motors Corp. must also preserve the ability to take advantage of certain tax assets, including net operating loss carry forwards."