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Non-Tech : Bill Wexler's Dog Pound -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sophie Janne who wrote (4474)	10/30/1999 8:55:00 PM
From: Druss	Respond to of 10293

Sophie--I read your post with interest. I tend to think in terms of percentage gain rather than points. So in this trade assuming he was margined at the typical 50% on a short, Bill had $8.25 a share invested. So picking up $6.50 a share is a really fine hit on the stock. <<1) He believes the stock is close to its fair value / to its bottom. 2) He believes the market believes the stock is undervalued / oversold.>> I think you missed a third option in this position. Bill has said he expects a strong bull market to assert itself. So this might be a bad stock but a bull market could raise it. With that in mind I sometimes look at my positions in terms of "Do I have a solid feel for where this stock should be moving?" If the answer is no and I am sitting on fat profits like Bill is I will cover or sell a position to take them. If I end up leaving some on the table that is fine, and if in the case of a short, it were to go up in price I can short again. If I feel a position could go up or down, I will often take profits. All the Best Druss

To: Sophie Janne who wrote (4474)	10/31/1999 2:50:00 AM
From: BelowTheCrowd	Respond to of 10293

How about another reason: He believes that there are better opportunities elsewhere. I'll give a personal example. I sold all my remaining HWP the other day. Not because I believe it's a bad company, or even that I believe it's overvalued. Just because I believe that it is unlikely to do as well as several other stocks I follow, and because I no longer think I have a really good handle on where it's heading. So I moved my money out of what I considered to be the weaker position, and into some stronger ones. In the current market environment, I am generally moving money out of shorts and into long positions, because I believe the market will favor longs over shorts. There are lots of reasons for portfolio adjustments. mg