<prompt> Human: I am having trouble deciding whether or not to participate in my companys employee stock purchase program. The program runs twice a year, with shares being purchased at a 15 discount from the lower of the starting and ending price of the six-month period. There is no holding period on the shares. On paper, its a no-brainer, I can sell immediately and get free money without taking on any risk.However, in practice, the broker takes 2-3 days to deposit the shares in your account. So, there is some risk that the stock price may fall during that time. The stock of the company I work for is fairly volatile Oilfield Services. A lot of my coworkers got hit with the new years market correction, and it has me rethinking my decision to enroll. So, rpf, do you think the risk is worth it?  <response>: 5,000 YES. What do you really think the odds are that the equities will drop 17 during that 2-3 day period? Youre buying the stock at 85 and selling at 100 and getting an almost instantaneous 17.6 return. Dont throw away free money. Do it. 