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Non-Tech : Tulipomania Blowoff Contest: Why and When will it end? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rogermci® who wrote (2056)	10/10/1999 11:24:00 PM
From: Sir Auric Goldfinger	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3543

Some pretty good tulip links in this article: "Eternal Values The wisdom of Ben Graham is the basis of these Websites Reviewed by Kathy Yakal Edited by Randall W. Forsyth If playing Internet IPOs is the investment equivalent of rap music, then value investing is Gershwin. Rap may be what's happening now, but how many of today's hot new issues will endure for seven decades, like "Rhapsody in Blue"? It would seem that the Internet would be antithetical to value investing, whose eternal verities were elucidated by the late Benjamin Graham in The Intelligent Investor in 1949 and applied so spectacularly by Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett, but several sites are dedicated to the concept. Not all hew religiously to Graham's tenets, and they're not the kind of site you run to several times a day, or even daily, or even weekly. But patience is the essence of value investing. Two Websites look at value investing from opposite viewpoints: iTulip (top) examines instances where manias take hold; the Contrary Investor searches for values by bucking the consensus. One site that falls into this group is Dogs of the Dow (www.dogsofthedow.com). Its premise: Every December 31, select the 10 stocks of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average with the highest dividend yield. Invest an equal amount in all 10 stocks, and do the same thing every year. If you'd rather take "small dog steps," pick the five dogs with the lowest stock prices. Either way, the flying puppies have indeed bested both the Dow and the Dogs in the last seven-year period. Though there have been years when this method has lagged the Dow, the site's founders claim it has outperformed over the last 20 years. (See "Doggone!" for more on how the Dogs of the Dow have been doing this year.) The ContraryInvestor.com (www.contraryinvestor.com) doesn't have a canine mascot, but it's a nice collection of readings and charts on contrarian investing, another way of turning up value stocks. A twice-weekly market commentary, an archive of essays and commentary, and a library of recommended current and classic books support the site's founders' observations. Two other features, The Bear Facts and The Bull Sheet, are forums for the site's founders' dissents from the conventional wisdom. Not much meat on this site's bones yet, but worth a visit. Formerly known as The Market Wizard, ValueStocks.net (www.valuestocks.net) subscribes to Graham's tenets, notably his emphasis on a margin of safety when buying stocks. Among the places to look: stocks that have been trampled down, trading at deep discounts based on various criteria; industries under severe stress; small-capitalization stocks, which rarely have been cheaper relative to their bigger brethren. The site's developer put his money where his mouth is, and you can see how he's doing with the VSN Fund, a real-money, diversified portfolio whose particulars are spelled out on the site. For the year through October 2, the VSN Fund was up 38.7%, well ahead of both the Dow and Nasdaq. Small-company stocks are the focus of the Value & Growth Stock Review (www.vgsr.com). The site lists 20 of them every month that share two characteristics: undervaluation relative to future growth prospects, and superior price performance in recent months. Click on any in the list to be whisked to various research tools outside the site. With the exception of 1990 and 1998, the model portfolio has outperformed the Russell 2000, S&P Small-Cap and the S&P 500 since 1989. Buffett's firm's Website, www.berkshirehathaway.com, offers a glimpse of what the value master is doing. You'll learn more by visiting sites that subscribe to Buffett's investing style, however. Among them, Active Investment Research (www.stockresearch.com) encourages value-stock investing through a newsletter and regular market updates, discussion forums, recommendations, and other research tools. Today's Value Investor (www.tvinvestor.com) is the home of a newsletter by the same name. Analyst/author Timothy P. Vick screens securities to find undervalued stocks that may be poised for growth. Pick up a sample newsletter and check out the portfolio free; a print subscription to the newsletter is $125 per year ($95 if viewed on the site). StockPower (www.stockpower.com) combines a long-term investing approach with the tools to actually do the investing, via online direct stock purchase plans. Educational tools and other resources are available on the site. A quirky site with a very serious message, iTulip (www.itulip.com) takes its name from the Holland tulip-bulb craze of the 17th century. The site's badly designed, light on serious content, and its links don't always work. But hey, companies have gone public on less. And that's iTulip.com's message. It links to articles related to the overinflated stock market, and to stories about the Crash of '29. You also can read a history of international and U.S. economic crashes. To value investors, such episodes are buying opportunities."