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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric Wells who wrote (74851)	8/20/1999 2:52:00 PM
From: Jan Crawley	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

The problem is - and I truly believe this - is that when our markets are turned into casinos, it tends to undermine the strength of our economy I love our country and have strong faith in our economic system too, that's why I was very happy to see the up to 100% margin requirements placed on the nets for the 8M newly populated on-line accounts. Currently I just have the 500 Amzn shares and I ALWAYS speculate Less than 10% of my stocks' portfolio. The other 90% are "buys" and "holds" and no nets. Am I still gambling, a small yes.

To: Eric Wells who wrote (74851)	8/20/1999 2:54:00 PM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

>> to a point where the prices cannot be sustained - and then the whole bubble bursts - and people find themselves with much less wealth (some with none at all) and the economy takes a dive.<< Eric, I have a friend in Seattle who sells wine for a living. She started out a couple of years ago with 30 or 40k. She is now worth (on paper) over $3million fun $bucks. I know Realnet was her biggest hit. She's now traveling thru India with her mother for about 8 weeks. I hope this mania doesn't end while she's gone, because I know she didn't take her lap top with her. I'm personally thinking that this mania won't be over until 2000, not Forresters 2003. ps Did you know that there's several of investors here that became $million or $billionaires riding this mania up? The only thing I can guarantee you is they're not as rich as they where when amzn was @ 221.

To: Eric Wells who wrote (74851)	8/20/1999 4:22:00 PM
From: Randy Ellingson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

Eric- There's nothing that comes close to what one might characterize as "investing" in taking any position on internet stocks. I disagree. I am surprised that you would make such a sweeping statement since you have worked in the IT industry for a number of years. You clearly do not share the opinions of some others, but I believe that many of these "internet" stocks offer compelling investing opportunities. At any of the prices we've seen so far, for e.g., AMZN, YHOO, EBAY. (I don't trade in and out of any stocks, but rather I expect to own them for many years). I can only assume that you mean that earnings visibility is poor. I concur, but I also believe some of these companies have remarkable numbers of people interested in their products and services. They are extremely well-positioned to monetize consumers in unforeseen ways. I can assure you that our markets are not casinos to any significant extent; the collective understanding of these companies (say, e.g., EBAY, AMZN, YHOO) by investors of all types has valued them at today's prices. If the collective understanding improves and the wisdom says down, the prices go down. Those who were wrong, have less money to vote next time and vice versa. If the prices are too high today or next week, then prices will fall and capital will be redistributed more efficiently in the near future. We have all seen several cases where people have been very wrong in the short term, and run a stock down or up too far. No biggie to me. A few peanuts in the nut bowl of capital. Bubbles burst unpredictably. And I know I don't need to tell you this - but I would advise you to hold your long position with extreme caution. What makes you think there is a bubble, besides the media? Investing in new industries requires some faith that your understanding of the way the market and its businesses will evolve is correct. You may call this speculation, but investing only in companies with very visible future earnings would shortchange the enormous opportunities new areas sometimes merit. Investing in stocks is risky -- that's OK. Investing in MSFT is risky (I think not, but others think yes). Investing in RedHat is risky (I think maybe less so that you think), but there's no certainty that the industry really won't embrace the OS services model; Redhat has considerable expertise in an OS which is used to serve about a third of all web hits (an amazing stat IMO). I invested in AMZN in July of 1998, so I have a bit more than a double. You'll have to admit that today that represents a market-beating return from a stock price that the media and many analysts called "overvalued". Let's take another look two years from now, and then five from now (I'm a B&H investor). I may be wrong, but I don't believe it's really clear to anyone today what will definitely happen to Amazon.com in the coming years. Regards, Randy