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To: Sam who wrote (7040)	9/23/1999 7:58:00 PM
From: Sam	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 60323

Check out this: Microsoft Pres. Calls Tech Stock Values 'Absurd' SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) President Steve Ballmer Thursday said valuations on technology stocks have reached 'absurd' levels, and even his own company's shares may be overvalued. ``There is such an overvaluation of technology stocks, it is absurd,' Ballmer said to a group of journalists here at a technology conference being given by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. ``I could put our own company and others in that category.' Ballmer's comment came in response to a question about which stories are undercovered by the business media. Asked then what Microsoft's stock price should be, he said, 'less.' ``I used to believe in the theory of perfect markets, but I no longer believe that,' he added. Microsoft shares were off $4 at $92.06 in late-afternoon trading on the Nasdaq market. Ballmer's presentation to business writers included a general overview of Microsoft and the growing importance of the Internet in its future business strategy. He said he saw the office software business evolving to a service model in which users would take only certain features over the Internet. And here is the first post of a whole thread opened to discuss Ballmer's comments: siliconinvestor.com Here is another speculation about the late selloff: Message 11344457 People may or may not recall that a proximate cause of the October crash was then Treasury Secretary James Baker lobbying to take the dollar down. Not that I'm drawing any real comparisons....

To: Sam who wrote (7040)	9/24/1999 9:04:00 AM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Respond to of 60323

Sam, those are very good points. Whenever an investor uses options, they should be a very SMALL part of total invested assets, as the risks are much higher than ordinary stocks because of the wasting value of the option over time. The abrupt fall toward the end of trading yesterday was aggravated, it would appear, by a statement made by the president of Microsoft, who said he thought all tech stocks, including his company, were too high. Never have I heard such a self serving statement made in such a public forum before. What it really tells me is that MSFT knows it is going to lose the antitrust suit big time and seeks to cushion the blow by saying, in effect, What the hell, all tech stocks are too high anyway! The danger is that this kind of self serving statement can take so much steam out of the whole market, not just tech stocks, that recovery becomes a slow, painful process, and incidentally, I would then lose on my option purchase. Note that the Dow industrials lost over 200 points, and the S&P 500 went down similarly. You are now seeing selling not just in tech stocks, but almost across the board, with very few exceptions. The selling may also be aggravated by fears that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in October. So there is a danger in jumping back into a stock like SNDK too early. However, when I look at the fundamentals and factor in other sources of revenue for SNDK, I come to the conclusion that buying in the 65-75 range has only a moderate downside risk. Art Bechhoefer