DO your homework--great article on research from today's post:
<<Walking to the Metro with a friend the other day, I noticed he was stealing furtive glances at the magazine under my arm. Finally, curiosity got the best of him. Why, he asked, was I reading Chain Saw Age?
"It's not Chain Saw Age," I said, holding up the magazine. "It's Chain Store Age. And I'm reading it to find out about tech stocks."
Why on earth, he asked, would I read about chain stores to find out about technology?
Because, I said, chain stores are all shopping for software and systems and e-commerce solutions. I want to find out who's buying what from whom.
I've not been a trade-pub junkie very long. I was an investment Web site man and a reader of investment magazines. Only now do I realize what I missed, like an article in Wireless Review three years ago that said Qualcomm had enormous potential. Qualcomm was selling for $6 per share then, adjusted for splits, vs. $110.56 1/4 at Friday's close.
It didn't mention stock prices. It didn't use the word "invest." It was about licensing of CDMA technology. Would I have rushed out and bought the stock? Who knows? But at least I could have considered it.
I skim a number of these publications now. Reading them for pleasure is asking too much, perhaps, though I confess to being fascinated by Chain Store Age's article about shopping carts that lock up and self-immobilize when taken too far from the premises.
I skim them. And when it comes to getting ideas for buying stocks before the whole wide world knows about them, when it comes to resources that cost little or nothing compared with some of the pricey newsletters, I think you can't beat www.chainstoreage. com, or www.cableworld.com, or www.telecomweb.com or www. wirelessreview.com, just to mention a few of the many hundreds.
Who's likely to buy what from whom--that's the single most important question of investing. Once you get some names, you can begin serious research on the value of the stock and the company's fundamentals.
Finding those names is what this column is about. Take the latest issue of Chain Store Age. Page 92 has an article about how California-based Wet Seal, a teen women's apparel chain, implemented a new merchandising system provided by Retek--a provider of Internet "business-to-business" technology. A check of the company produced the ticker symbol RETK, with a stock price that has doubled since November. Its customer list includes Ann Taylor, Brooks Brothers, Family Dollar Stores and Eckerd, among others.
On page 94, Chain Store Age's "New Products" column yielded Encad Inc., (ENCD) of San Diego, which specializes in digital imaging for businesses--making signs, displays, posters and graphics using "microburst" technology. Its stock closed at $5.96 7/8 Friday, up 25 percent over the past year.
Eighteen pages later came QRS Corp. (QRSI), of Richmond, Calif., and a note about how it's working with Sports Authority to help develop electronic catalogue networks. QRSI's stock has risen 1,000 percent in the past five years, 200 percent in the past year. Among its other customers are Nordstrom, Saks and Tommy Hilfiger.
There's also a report about French supermarket giant Carrefour installing a wireless network of hand-held computers in its supermarkets globally using technology from Symbol Technologies Inc., of Holtsville, N.Y. (SBL). Symbol Technologies is up 530 percent for five years, 62 percent for the past year. Other customers include Alcoa, Compaq and Kmart.
I'm not urging anyone to go out and buy anything--a stock, a magazine, a Web site subscription.
I am urging that you get into something, develop a specialty, wade into the literature as if you were part of the business. Get into something and shake that post-run-up why-didn't-I-know-about-that self-flagellation mode I know so well. Unlike big-time fund managers, you may not be able to hobnob with CEOs and CFOs, but you can certainly do better than watching the ticker on CNBC, or waiting for that "hot tip."
Where do you look for trade publications and Web sites? Start with a good list of lists, such as Selected Business Periodicals by Industry, put out by the Michigan Electronic Library, a project ofthe University of Michiganat www.mel.lib.mi.us/business/BU-IPmenu.html.
It connects you with publications in 27 industries, from airlines to waste management, most of which are free, in whole or part, some of which charge subscription fees. Try also a search at www.google.com under the name of the industry and "publications."
You'll get some great names. RubberWorld. Fur Age. Storage Management.
One of my favorites is Electron-ic Business (www.eb-mag.com), which is great on chips and proc-essors. For Internet industries,I like The Industry Standard(thestandard.com) and Business2.0 (www.business2.com).
Look also at certain government Web sites. The government's various labs, such as Los Alamos and Argonne, have Web sites that describe cooperative research and development agreements with private companies. They tell you who's getting funding for what.
Go to the Web site of the Na-tional Institute of Standards (www.nist.gov). The Institute's Advanced Technology Program co-sponsors sophisticated research by top-of-the-line R&D companies, some of which turn into moneymakers.
The NIST Web site discussed a company called Affymetrix Inc. in April 1998. What does it do? In its own words, Affymetrix does gene chip technology, which "provides efficient access to genetic information using miniaturized, high-density arrays of oligonucleotide probes." I can't tell you what that means. I can tell you what you probably already know: The share price of AFFX has shot from $30 to $228.12 1/2 since it appeared on the NIST list.
Another company, CuraGen Corp., received funding in the mid-'90s for pursuing methods to understand the role of proteins in diseases. The company (CRGN) was selling for about $10 a share in 1998. It's now going for $93.37 1/2.
NIST, in "Technology at a Glance," describes its awards on its Web site regularly. Among the other companies I found screening NIST lists for the past few years were Caliper Technologies Corp. (CALP), before it doubled, and Cree Inc. (CREE), which has tripled.
I understand that we have only so much time, and so much stomach, for government Web sites and trade publications. But if your alternative is a chat room or the mesmerizing CNBC ticker, I guarantee you'll get more from the Magazine of Total Supply Chain Management.
Don't want to be seen with it? Hide it in the pages of The Post's Outlook section.>>
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