Question if a company emerges from bankrupcy will i still own my shares?
Answer Dan, in nearly all bankruptcies the original stock is canceled as part of the final bankruptcy order, so it is worthless. New shares are created and given out to creditors. Once the bankruptcy is final those new shares will then trade on the exchange (possibly under the same name and ticker symbol as the "old" stock).
But the original shareholders don't typically get any of those new shares. That's the whole point of a bankruptcy, that the shareholders' equity has been wiped out, and the investors/owners have nothing left. Instead the creditors (people who are owed money) become the owners of whatever is left.
There have been a few bankruptcies where the original shareholders got some of the new shares, but off the top of my head I can't even think of a half-dozen of them in my 20+ years of investing. If the stock is in a taxable investment account, you can sell the shares and claim a loss on your tax return, or wait until they're "deemed worthless" (as the IRS puts it) and claim the loss in that year. That can be years after the initial bankruptcy filing though, so many people just sell the shares when bankruptcy is declared to take their loss right away. You might not do that, of course, if you thought yours was one of the rare cases where the original shareholders would get some of the new stock.
Last point: if you happen to own "preferred stock", or similar securities, which are more like a bond, you might salvage something after the bankruptcy - such securities are higher in the pecking order and their owners can be issued something as part of a reorganization. Most stock is "common" stock though. You'd know if it's preferred...the name of the stock will hint that it's something different than just "ABC Corp.", or the ticker symbol has PR in it - and the security pays a high, fixed dividend, with little change in stock price (well...little change unless the company goes bankrupt that is).
