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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim B who wrote (34342)	2/18/2000 12:59:00 PM
From: Jeffrey D	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

Jim B:<<anyone have any thoughts on today's action?? >> Gee, Jim B, I don't know. But this guy seems to have AMAT all figured out. <gg> Jeff Message 12904893

To: Jim B who wrote (34342)	2/18/2000 1:00:00 PM
From: Dr. Mitchell R. White	Respond to of 70976

Jim, I don't have a clue about what AMAT does on an options expiry Friday. I'm not an options trader, and I don't have access to numbers like some of the other threaders here do. Sorry! As for the "giving back" of some gains: at this point I'm seeing about 3% down, which appears to me (impressions only, I don't have hard figures) that's well within the noise of AMAT's trading in the long term. I'm used to seeing daily variation larger than that, up AND down, in fact. It is true, however, that there is almost always a pull-back the day after a big, one-day run up. I'd watch the Shares Traded number as well, to see if this is a general phenomenon or more limited in scope. Maybe some of the TA'ers (Katherine?) will have specific thoughts (top of channel? etc.). Nothing looks particularly out of whack to me, so far today. But then again, my "inspection" of the trading parameters isn't as in-depth as some of the others around here (and hopefully they'll chime in soon!).... Mitch

To: Jim B who wrote (34342)	2/19/2000 10:03:00 AM
From: Fred Levine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Message #34343 from Jim B at Feb 18 2000 12:38PM anyone have any thoughts on today's action?? we're giving back some gains today.. not sure whether to buy some more or whether this stock always pulls back after big day runs or on option fridays jim IMO, volatile stocks, including AMAT, often have their volatility amplified by having large short positions. The run-ups get amplified by the shorts having their nuts in a vise. After the dust settles, the fundamentals once again take over. Several times, when AMAT seemed to get way ahead of itself, I have sold covered calls and either watched them expire, bought them back at a lower price, and gotten called away when the runnup continued. I regard this as a very low risk way of lowering my effective basis. One can't lose, BUT gains can be limited. Currently, my effective basis for AMAT is about zero, and I don't have to worry about the stock going down and losses zooming. IMO, this is a consolidation period. I did sell and buy back calls after the big run-up, but did it quickly and could have made more if I didn't love the company long term. However, if I were to give a seminar on how to be miserable, I would spend a great deal of it telling people to obsess on saying, "If only..." Most of us are very happy with this stock. fred