This was quoted by an expert, so BMCS was overdone, in my opinion if we have stability bmcs Aug 55's are worth a look, I want to pick few up so I am looking at a more aggressive combo sell 45's Aug and buy Aug 55 call with a difference of 2, if we sell from here further we hit may be lower but I don't mind owning this at 47. .. I hope you get it Susan.. but i will only get in after I have a double close above 3520 on NDX or DOW takes out the Aug high of 11365 I think that will indicate a good divergence already look at the various indexes we are seeing a kind of divergence and now instead of NDX we may talk about NOW 50-- read this interesting article..
<<NOW & Dow
The NOW 50 Argument
By Paul Larson (TMF Parlay)
( January 5, 2000 ) -- As we launch into a new century, The Motley Fool is launching a new index called the NOW 50. To be concise, I think this index will beat the pants off the Dow in the coming year simply because the NOW 50 is made up of companies that are established yet have fundamentally bright prospects for the coming years.
One thing I like about the NOW 50 is that the index was created with the help of the Foolish community. Through literally thousands of message board postings and e-mails, the trustees of the NOW 50 were given hundreds of ideas of companies to add to the index. I respect the Foolish community's opinion (look at how well the Voting Fools have done in the past Duels), and to create an index starting with the community's collective intelligence is simply an awesome thing.
Second, each company in the NOW 50 has something going for it that the Foolish trustees found exciting in one way or another. To shed some light on exactly how the companies were selected, let me quote one of our NOW 50 specials:
"With each company we asked ourselves the question: 'How is this company excellent?' Those remaining on the list were the ones that the majority of the trustees singled out as having something exceptional about them -- a leadership quality in innovation, global branding, technology, or strategic vision. Many of the companies, in fact most of them, exhibit superiority in more than one of these fields.
"We reject the Dow Jones Industrial Average as the premier gauge for market performance due to its dependence on the industries of yesterday, its equal weighting, and its unresponsiveness to the changes in the global economy."
Sounds good to me!
In general, the Dow is made up of companies that are largely mature and have meager prospects for growth. The NOW 50, on the other hand, is made up of companies that are in their prime and have many years of vibrant expansion to look forward to. You won't find any old-age, industrial-era companies in the NOW 50. The Dow is then, the NOW 50 is, well, now!
Of course, whenever we paint with such a wide brush we're inevitably going to miss some of the details. The keepers of the Dow index just a few weeks ago made some major changes that, in my opinion, greatly increased the relevance of the index. By finally adding Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) to the Dow, it went a long way toward breaking the mold of being an index filled with aging giants. Still, there's a lot farther for the Dow to go, and the NOW 50 bests the Dow hands down when looking for companies with growth and relevance in today's economy.
Probably the biggest knock I have against the Dow is the fact that there is little representation in some of today's most promising industries. I'm talking about the Internet, biotechnology, wireless communications, computer hardware, etc. Even when the Dow does have a new-era company in it, the NOW 50 tends to have it, too. Just take a look at some examples of what I consider some of today's hottest sectors and how many companies from that sector are in each index:
Internet/E-commerce
NOW 50 Dow 30
Microsoft Microsoft
Amazon.com
America Online
Yahoo!
Networking Hardware
NOW 50 Dow 30
Intel Intel
Cisco Systems
Lucent
Sun Microsystems
Biotechnology
NOW 50 Dow 30
Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson
Merck Merck
Amgen
Biogen
Medtronic
Wireless Communications
NOW 50 Dow 30
AT&T AT&T
Cable & Wireless SBC Communications
Hughes Electronics
Lucent
Nokia
In other words, by the time a company makes it onto the Dow, its brightest days of growth are behind it. While some NOW 50 companies may be also mature, the vast majority are still in the process of claiming their stakes in the economy.
It's also worth noting that the Dow does not have any internationally based companies in the index. On the other hand, those overseeing the NOW 50 have not limited themselves to domestic corporations. They were willing to accept foreign companies if they met some fairly stringent financial reporting guidelines and were listed on a major American exchange. This all means that the NOW 50 has a handful of the brightest stars from overseas, including the likes of Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Sony (NYSE: SNE), and Cable & Wireless (NYSE: CWP).
Simply said, the NOW 50 is largely made up of companies that will benefit from the new economy. I think the NOW 50, as a group, have much better prospects in the years ahead than those companies in the Dow.
The NOW 50 Companies
Automatic Data Processing (NYSE: AUD)
America Online (NYSE: AOL)
American International Group (NYSE: AIG)
Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN)
American Express (NYSE: AXP)
Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT)
ARM Holdings (Nasdaq: ARMHY)
AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T)
Amgen Inc. (Nasdaq: AMGN)
Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A)
Biogen Inc. (Nasdaq: BGEN)
Cable & Wireless (NYSE: CWP)
Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO)
Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C)
Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO)
Costco Wholesale (Nasdaq: COST)
DaimlerChrysler (NYSE: DCX)
Dell Computer (Nasdaq: DELL)
DuPont (NYSE: DD)
EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC)
Enron Corp. (NYSE: ENE)
Exxon-Mobil (NYSE: XOM)
Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS)
General Electric (NYSE: GE)
Home Depot (NYSE: HD)
HSBC Holdings (NYSE: HBC)
Hughes Electronics (NYSE: GMH)
International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM)
Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC)
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ)
Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU)
McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD)
Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT)
Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK)
Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT)
News Corp. (NYSE: NWS)
Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK)
Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL)
Pepsico Inc. (NYSE: PEP)
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE)
Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG)
Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB)
Schwab Corp. (NYSE: SCH)
Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE)
Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW)
Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN)
Time Warner (NYSE: TWX)
United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS)
Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT)
Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO)
.. |
