[TorqueDog]

Employee Stock Purchase Programs differ from company to company. Sometimes they match, sometimes you just get to purchase shares at a discount.

At a high level, it works like this:
- Employer allows employee to register with a broker that is working with the company to administer the ESPP (sometimes it's just one, other times you have multiple options)
- Employee can register to contribute X% of their post-tax payroll amount to the ESPP for the next period (often these periods are run in quarters). Employer agrees to match this percent up to a certain amount or provides the stock purchase at a discount, whatever they do.
- Over the next period, the employer will deduct the predetermined percentage from the employee's payroll and set it aside (let's say it's $100 per pay period).
- At the end of the collection period, you now have $600 (6 pay periods in a quarter x $100). The stock purchase will be made at the day's opening or closing price, whatever is decided in the program and be deposited into the broker that the employee set up with the employer.

At this point, you can just keep the stock in the ESPP broker, you can transfer it out to your own broker (what I do), or you can sell it immediately and pocket your profits (and you can do market orders, limit orders, etc.).

Tax implications... well... where the hell is Locke, someone get him in here.