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To: Enigma who wrote (49187)	2/17/2000 8:01:00 AM
From: long-gone	Respond to of 116753

Edited by Ryan Troup with MoneyNews.com Staff For the story behind the story... Wednesday February 16, 2000 3:05 PM EST So You Think It's a Level Playing Field Wal-Mart (WMT) reports a 23% increase in earnings, beating Wall Street estimates by a penny. The stock falls 8% in two days. Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) reports a 27% increase in earnings, matching Wall Street estimates. Credit Suisse First Boston, Morgan Stanley, and Deutsche Banc Alex.Brown all downgrade the stock. The stock falls 35% today. True, we are in a volatile market and the companies also spoke about their expectations for the coming year in their conference calls. But, the fact is that they matched or beat what was supposedly expected of them. It seems that these companies missed the "whisper estimate" or what analysts actually thought about the company. The big firms routinely deter investors from relying on what they read on the big bad internet. They say you don't know what shady characters might be behind that information you read online. Heaven forbid you should enter a chat room! Don't be fooled. It's just another sales pitch to keep you buying their research. And what does this research get you? It gets you their opinion on a given day a few weeks ago when the report was printed. Meanwhile, the internet gets updated by the second. At the same time that the big firms issue research reports to their customers, they are likely talking to their biggest clients about what is called a whisper estimate. But unless you trade thousands of shares per day with the firm, don't expect to hear what the whisper estimate is. Major customers such as Fidelity Investments get very preferential treatment. We won't argue about whether they deserve it. It is just a fact. Fidelity, to their credit, does so much business with all the Wall Street firms that they nearly always receive the first call from the analyst about a new (cont) newsmax.com

To: Enigma who wrote (49187)	2/17/2000 11:21:00 AM
From: Casaubon	Respond to of 116753

the PGM's are trading on a seperate set of fundamentals. Fuel cell technology, at its current state of development, is dependent on the PGM's. These metals now have another industrial use which will only expand. These metals are a bottleneck for this technology, so they will find much higher equilibrium prices. The only thing which will bring the PGM's down to earth is a technological breakthrough in fuel cell technology. For instance, if the aluminum/hydrogen peroxide technology replaces current PEM technology.