Gary, yes I have thought about it, pretty off topic, but will respond-hopefully in the next day or two. SL, regarding SFE at $65? Still seems more fully valued than undervalued. Of course, in the past few years, that says little about future price action. I am not very good at predicting where SFE will be in say two or three weeks. The best I try for [in trading SFE] is to be on the right side of the short term direction, and hopefully identify turning points at or soon after they occur. Right now, [medium term] stochastic is going down from a sell signal, and is about half way to a level that could be considered oversold. It doesn't necessarily have to get there before the stochastic [and stock] turn up, but by the looks of it, I would respect the downward direction. At a minimum, it is likely it won't V turn, but rather would now have to build some kind of base before turning up [unless it has a severe decline and quickly gets oversold]. Next support appears to be in the upper $50s where previous declines were stopped, and where the 200 day MA is. RE: FCGI. One can never fully trust this stock, but it is encouraging the way it is holding on to the large recent gain in spite of a NASDAQ shellacking. Can't fault its action of late. OTGold, specifically the XAU and Barrick. "Old timers" will remember the discussion around 2+ mo. ago where I called for new value ideas. One that I presented [and subsequently sold] was Barrick ABX. At the time gold was around $275 or so. Now with gold around $260, ABX is actually higher than the original buy. This recent decline in gold to new 20 year lows was met with a non-confirmation in gold stocks. The majors did not hit their lows of a couple of months ago. In fact, if memory serves me right, the lows were reached 1 1/2 years ago in Dec. '97 even though gold was much higher. Bullish sentiment toward gold and gold stocks recently barely registered on the scale. Instituted a trading position in ABX yesterday at $17 1/2. Robert Prechter [Elliott Wave Theorist] has been correctly bearish on gold for 20 years giving a long term target of $112 per oz. [highest probability] or $182 [next highest probability]. Even if $112 is the ultimate target, he expects a major counter-trend rally from around $182. For the short term, I think there is a trade being long NEM or ABX. Wouldn't marry them though. The last rally saw ABX go from around $17 to $24 fairly quickly. Lastly, made a trading mistake earlier in the week. Mentioned selling covered call on SFE and TLAB. A good idea if short term bearish on long term stock with a very low cost basis. But, not such a good idea on a trading position. If cautious or bearish, better to just sell the stock and wait for lower risk entry point. Sure money is made on the short calls, but not enough to offset the possible loss on the underlying security. The most efficient and effective is to just get out. Sold the Aug. 85s. Had at the money or in the money calls been sold, it would have been better, but still not as good as just selling the stock and having no risk, total flexibility, and deal with a security far more liquid. Mike
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