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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Freedom Fighter who wrote (72032)	12/20/1999 5:17:00 PM
From: BGR	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Wayne, I think the main difference is this: I do not consider institutions to be the public even when they are investing public funds. When talking about the public, I refer to the the so-called J6P mom-and-pop investors. Now most (some 80%+, I have read around June in I believe the NYT, but I may be wrong about the source) of these investors do not even have margin accounts, let alone option accounts. So, they could not have been short or long puts. As for mutual funds etc. - yes, they do have a tendency to lose money by trying to be different. Well, they have to do that. After all, it is not their money for starters, and then their bread depends on trying to convincing investors that they have an edge (and thus repeatedly fail to surpass index fund returns year after year). So, they may very well have been short. I think that if you read my previous post (to which you responded) one more time this distinction made by me will be clear. I am an index fund holder and never short or go long puts. Also, I work in the US economy and depend on its future growth for my livelihood and improved standard of living. So, I am happy that Greenspan brought this economy back from the verge of recession (thus saving millions of jobs). He deserves praise, period. -BGR.