Good Morning Penni, I hope the issues in 3D life are not too painful for you.
CREAF? Well, I dumped my CREAF stock about 4 months ago and bit a 3 dollar loss. They are having a real difficult time transitioning away from a pure sound company. They completely missed the boat with regard to sound on the net. RealNetworks totally circumvented them. CW may be talking about the MP3 player. They are amazing and getting better all the time. You can download off the net all kinds of music, albums, and I suspect nearly everything before long. Some of it is legal, some not, but I doubt the governments of the world will be able to prevent the technology from growing and growing. Of course the Hollywood record companies are up in arms about it. CREAF isn't the only one making such devices though. So I suspect when the inflection point hits with these devices, the margins won't be that high. In other words, I don't think they are a bad investment, just not a great one. Here is a good link if you want to read up on MP3. mp3now.com
The best tech mutual funds I believe still are in the Fidelity line up. Their "computer" and "technology" fund have been some of the best performers for the last 10 years. Unfortunately you have to pay a 3% load with the funds. They are one of the few which have actually been worth it though. If he is skittish about individual stocks, the way I got started was to select 5 different mutual funds which invest in different ways and form a pie. In other words, 20% in a high tech mutual fund, (like the ones above) 20% in a small cap value fund, (like a Heartland Value) 20% in a high tech growth fund, (like a American Century Ultra) 20% in a broadly managed mid cap fund (like a Janus) and 20% in an international fund. (like a Vanguard). The mix and addition of some others by shrinking the percentages is totally up to the risk aversion of the individual. That's why a "one size fits all" investment philosophy is never right IMO. Oh, and I would suggest his first fund be set up as an IRA.
This market is definitely for the young at heart. He just may be a great stock picker! I've gotten some excellent short term ideas from some of the young guys at work. But I'm still sticking with the big boys for most of my mula. MSFT, INTC, CSCO, LU, JNJ, MRK, PFE.
Michael |
