Maybe things have improved to 98% since 2019...

99% of listed companies disappear worthless

• Ashley Owen
• 6 August 2019
• 12

When we talk about returns from ‘Australian shares’ or the ‘Australian stock market’, what do we actually mean? Australian stock markets have always consisted of a small number of ‘investment grade’ companies with real businesses, but the vast majority of companies are, and have always been, high risk speculative gambles.

They are little more than a way for promoters and brokers to harvest money from the pockets of the seemingly never-ending waves of newly-minted speculators hoping to hit the jackpot, much like a casino.

37,000 companies tried, only 580 still listed and profitable

The chances of finding a winner on stock exchanges in Australia has been around 1%. Not a 1% chance of beating the overall ‘market index’. I mean 1% just managing to survive and build a profitable business. Here’s why.

I estimate that there have been about 37,000 companies that have raised money from investors and listed on one or more of Australia’s stock exchanges at some time since the early 1800s. Today, there are only 2,300 companies left still listed on the ASX (6% of the total ever listed) and only 580 of those make any money. So what happened to the rest of them, and what happened to investors’ money?

full article...

https://www.firstlinks.com.au/listed-companies-disappear-worthless