When a company’s stock drops 99.9% in six months, there’s probably a story there. When, despite that carnage, the company’s assets double during the same period, even more so.

And when 1.68 million of the company’s shares held early last year equal exactly one share today, well, what is going on?

The locus of these bizarre doings is DryShips Inc., a Greek carrier that has been tracing one of the wildest rides in recent stock-market history, causing half a billion dollars of traders’ money to vanish and, it appears, making two wealthy men wealthier.

DryShips’ shares occupy a murky world of tiny stocks where information is limited and investors often bet on short-term moves. Worth barely $5 million on the stock market in early November, the company became a hot topic on stock discussion boards when its shares suddenly leapt 1,500% in four trading days.

That the company had just disclosed a huge loss and suspended debt payments “to preserve cash liquidity” evidently didn’t matter to buyers who wanted in while the stock was on fire.