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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dwight E. Karlsen who wrote (26962)	7/20/1999 11:57:00 PM
From: t2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Dwight, I was just spooked by this upcoming vacuum of news. I take big gambles in trading and I just decided enough is enough and started selling a lot of my call options positions early last week and finished yesterday. When i hold mostly stock, it is like being in a cash position and does not bother me. Holding call options heading when i feel there could be decline does scare me. I was very fortunate that I sold a big position in leaps options yesterday just before the close. MSFT has made me very happy camper this year. The stock moves were predictable and options worked. Now there just too much uncertainty. Another thing that had scared me was that the PC companies like Dell don't really advertise with Office as standard on all PCs. I don't know if i had already mentioned this. Last year, i would not have been able to buy a Dell PC without Office (or MS Home Essentials) in Canada. Now there is no problem in getting a PC without--as there appears to tough competition in the PC industry. Some people don't want to be forced to buy it because they can get a copy from a friend or just don't need it. Even though MSFT sold so many upgrades, i just felt that PC companies are not going to "help" MSFT in increasing sales of Office. When Maffei was talking about competitive pressures in the conference call, he was not specific. PC companies might try to use even Corel WordPerfect as way to force MSFT to cut the price on Office. I am sure Corel would be happy to make a minimal amount in order to gain acceptance of its software. So we get cheap PCs with WordPerfect for close to nothing. MSFT has to counter that at the retail level maybe with a small cut in price. At the business level, there is no competition---Office is and should remain the standard. I had read that voice recognition technology will be some sort of upgrade for Office2k next year---more money. Corporations are at the mercy of MSFT at least but their grip on the consumers (or PC makers)is not as tight as before thanks to the DOJ. Just my opinions. BTW--Still feel Windows2k and other upgrades will help along the growth rate. I still don't buy his growth rate in the teens bit but as long as most people do, i have to go along with it. Still the only stock i feel comfortable owning.