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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (4395)	7/30/1999 10:24:00 PM
From: Teflon	Respond to of 54805

Great post, Frank. <eom> Teflon

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (4395)	7/30/1999 11:05:00 PM
From: Percival 917	Respond to of 54805

Hi Unq, RE:Let me play wet blanket Great post. Every time I think I have made a decision to jump on some of the great returns of some of the up and comers, someone, like yourself comes along with a post that reminds me not to go jumping in with both feet and to reevaluate. You are correct in that if the GG is going to work for me, I have to wait for the proper time and not timing Thanks for the reality check.

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (4395)	7/30/1999 11:15:00 PM
From: Apollo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 54805

Frank: I'm recommitting myself to the basic theme of the GG. I am a Gorilla Hunter <g>. I appreciate your sound reminder of GG principles. I am not ready to be exclusively all Gorillas, since there are so few. Too young and too caught up in learning the ropes of investing, nuances, etc. Not yet ready to settle down into near-complete no-brainer mode by investing in the 4 Tech Gorillas. However, > 60% of my portfolio is Qcom and Intc, so I do find myself subscribing more and more to GG. Since you are recommitting yourself, may I ask why you don't like the Gorilla Intc. I know you have mentioned dislike of semiconductor cycles, but would you be willing to expand on this? Do you think its Gorilla status in doubt? TIA, Stan

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (4395)	7/31/1999 12:08:00 AM
From: Mike Buckley	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 54805

That's a great portfolio, chaz, but only two of your selections have been "certified" as Gorillas, QCOM and MSFT. And apparently there's a lot of disagreement about QCOM. --Mike Buckley

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (4395)	7/31/1999 12:36:00 AM
From: Mike Buckley	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 54805

Frank, Sorry. Though I'm enamored with The Gospel According to Gorillas, I'm not quite as enamored with it as you apparently are. Perhaps that's why you deserve the title, King Arthur. :) The real purpose of the gorilla game (is) to help private investors participate in the rewards of high-tech stock gains while standing clear of the market's unnerving volatility. I've never understood that comment. If Cisco's and Intel's drops aren't unnerving volatility, how volatile does a stock have to be to be deemed unnerving? Gorilla game investors should never get trapped by false hypergrowth because they invest based on actual revenues, not projections of boom markets to come. The investment thesis is to buy baskets of gorilla wannabes, many if not most of whom experience reduction of growth of revenue if not reduction of actual revenue at some point in time before becoming a gorilla. Investing in a company with 10 quarters of great revenue growth followed by a few quarters of lower revenue certainly makes this investor feel trapped when it happens to him. For private investors with limited capital and a high sensitivity to risk, the gorilla is the only safe buy in the category, that all the other investments incur a much higher risk of eventually disappointing drastically. I wouldn't call an investment in any high-tech company "safe." I realize you consider Softie a guaranteed investment with 85% annual return (Do I remember the number correctly?), but I don't. (The GG) uses consolidation, not diversification, as its primary risk reduction strategy for long term holds. I don't think the manual offers enough back testing of that thesis to validate it to the point of being beyond a shadow of a doubt. One primary issue is that the manual speaks primarily (only?) to the issues of computer high-techs. I wonder what the data shows about gorillas in other high-tech industries. Perhaps my comments are nothing more than subconscious justifications of my investment in Fastenal, a company that sells nuts and bolts. Year-to-date, that investment is doing as well or better than my investments in Excite@Home (an Internut!), Cisco, Citrix, and EMC. --Mike Buckley

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (4395)	7/31/1999 12:53:00 AM
From: chaz	Respond to of 54805

It's make-believe Frank, nothing real at the moment except for the two certified. With the other five, I'm setting entry points pretty well below present prices, and I will pull rugs. Those five are not for long term programs. You'll note that I've omitted INTC...many would agree...but, IMO, INTC is not going to go away either. I'm very interested in seeing how their new business develops, because if they believe in it enough to invest in themselves, which is what they're doing, it could be a major revenue source all over again.