Ruffian....I just logged on for the first time on this thread and read the past 39 posts. Yours is the first with any sensible information in it. Nice job digging up the article.
I don't know how people can think that this tracking stock was just going to take off in a market that was sliding since back on March 23 when the slope just got too slippery and friction was finally overcome.
You have to look long and hard to find any company that's been around awhile that is trading above where it was back then. GE, which closed at 160 back then (split adjusted it would have been 53 1/3) is still underwater...closed today at 50. IBM was at 115 1/4 then closed today at 107 3/8. Motorola was at 162 1/2 and then got hammered is now at 88. Nokia was at 54 29/32 then is at 45 today. SunMicro was at 97 13/16 then and 71 7/8 today.
JDSU...a darling of momentum traders was at 134 11/16 then and has slid to 79 1/8 today. And Qualcom, which was at 144 1/8 then has slid to 79 3/8 today.
Cisco, a company that everyone recommended back then and is still saying is fundamentally sound today was at 77 13/16 back then and is at 50 17/32 today and everyone is saying that if it closes below 50 the NASDAQ will tank even more. It is only hanging on by the proverbial skin of its teeth to stay above that support level.
I picked the date of March 23 because it was the day that all the mutual funds I own topped out. They've been sliding ever since. And all the companies I've just mentioned above had even higher closings than I've posted. If you check their 52 week highs you'll see that some were way above their closing price of March 23. JDSU has a 52 week high of 153 7/16. NOKIA's 52 week high was 60. CSCO's was 82. QualCom's was 200. All that value went to money heaven.
So I'd like to know how anyone with any trading sense could have thought that they'd make a killing on AWE, a tracking stock that some held in awe!
It will bounce back...well, maybe bounce is too strong a word to use in this case...however, over time it will make investors some kind of money...even if the sentiment on the STREET is to bash old MA BELL's relatives whenever it can, i.e., LUCENT and all the other babies it has spawned.
I'm a T holder from way back. Still have the first shares I ever purchased through the company's plan (15% under the market price) and I've made quite a bit via the spin-offs, i.e., LUCENT, Bell South, Bell Atlantic, NCR (which I immediately sold to purchase more LUCENT), and the rest of the baby bells which I sold to purchase more Bell South and Bell Atlantic. If you want to see a stock that hasn't moved in two years look back on Bell South. And of course LUCENT has been hammered and is just about where it was more than a year ago.
LUCENT closed at 56 1/2 on May 24, 1999 and today it closed at 55. Not much progress there...but then, that's life...in the stock market. Buy LOW, sell HIGH is how you do it....and while you're holding, hope that some analyst that gets the bully pulpit doesn't come up with an article that bashes the heck out of it...or that someone doesn't go into a chat room and post a phony news bulletin that has the official l““k of a news bulletin from Bloomberg or somebody else that covers the financial markets which can cause the stock you hold to tank 10 or 15% in the wink of an eye!
HAPPY TRADING!.....Anon |
