It wasn't all that long ago, just 40 weeks ago on 10/9/98, that a low
for the group was attained. Actually, the low was obtained on
Thursday, 10/8, but I didn't record that number. Then on 10/9 the
group started its rise to the level of this Friday's close.
The following is a comparison of the stock prices for the group
between the 2 dates. One observation is - don't be too concerned
about which stock you invest in - just invest. Only 1 stock out of
the 40 stocks, UTEK, is lower today than it was last October.
Investing in the other 39 stocks would have created some good gains -
obviously some better than others.
The right way to play this game is to get a dart board. Put the 40
stocks around the circle. Then throw approximately 10 darts at the
board and invest equal cash amounts in each stock you hit. Using
this approach, a persons percentage gain would have come fairly close
to the average of the group sum, or 186 percent (the SOX-X almost
matched this number at 164 percent) - not bad for 40 weeks of sitting
on your hands and watching your money grow. We're probably not done
yet either.
Another observation that can be made is to invest in the big cap
stocks. All 4 of the stocks that are in the 16 stock SOX-X index,
AMAT, TER, NVLS, and KLAC were up equal, or more, than the 186
percent. However, TER (the best performing of the 4), with a gain of
329 percent was beaten by 8 stocks out of the group. The big winner
was LTXX at 965 percent. That's a 10 bagger plus in 40 weeks.
Actually, LTXX closed at it low point of 1.00 on 10/13/98. It closed
today at 13.63 - a 13 bagger plus in under 40 weeks. That
performance is almost as good as an internet stock!!!<gg>
10/09/98 07/16/99
CLOSE CLOSE PERCENT
SYMBOL COMPANY PRICE PRICE CHANGE
LTXX LTX 1.28 13.63 965
PHTN Photon Dynamics 2.38 13.50 467
LRCX Lam Research 9.91 51.19 417
ASML ASM Lithography Holdings 13.63 69.00 406
ASYT Asyst Technologies 6.19 30.38 391
MTSN Mattson Technology 2.75 13.19 380
GSNX Gasonics 3.63 16.38 351
ASEC Aseco 0.75 3.38 351
TER Teradyne * 18.00 77.13 329
CYMI Cymer 8.00 34.06 326
CMOS Credence Systems 10.06 41.31 311
WFR MEMC Electronic Materials 3.50 13.81 295
PRIA Pri Automation 10.63 38.38 261
BRKS Brooks Automation 8.63 30.25 251
AMAT Applied Materials * 23.63 78.56 232
NVLS Novellus Systems * 23.06 74.84 225
HELX Helix Technology 8.63 27.00 213
ATMI ATMI Inc 11.38 35.00 208
KLAC KLA Instruments * 25.00 71.50 186
COHU Cohu 15.38 42.00 173
PLAB Photronics 11.00 28.63 160
DPMI Dupont Photomasks 19.31 49.69 157
KLIC Kulicke & Soffa Industries 11.56 28.44 146
SMTL Semitool 5.00 12.25 145
EGLS Electroglas 9.25 21.75 135
SVGI Silicon Valley Group 6.88 16.13 134
IMSC Integrated Measurement Systems 5.75 12.88 124
WJ Watkins Johnson 16.50 34.00 106
ETEC Etec System 20.25 41.44 105
TGAL Tegal 1.50 3.00 100
MICN Micrion 5.38 10.50 95
FSII FSI International 4.63 7.94 71
SFAM SpeedFAM 10.13 17.13 69
SFLX Smartflex Systems 5.94 10.00 68
NANO Nanometrics 4.81 8.00 66
MASK Align-Rite International 8.88 14.06 58
CFMT CFM Technologies 6.63 10.13 53
AFLX Adflex Solutions 2.50 3.66 46
VECO Veeco Instruments 24.75 32.38 31
UTEK Ultratech Stepper 15.38 14.94 -3
TOTALS 402.44 1151.44 186
SOX-X Phili Semiconductor Index 200.88 530.08 164
* Component of 16 stock SOX-X Index |
