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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric Jacobson who wrote (21877)	3/31/2000 1:17:00 PM
From: Thomas Mercer-Hursh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

it isn't possible to discern whether a company is suitable for the W&W list until you've completed enough due diligence to compile a Project Hunt report. While your point is well taken, I would disagree that one has to actually complete the full body of research if one realizes somewhat earlier in the game that there is a significant dis-qualification. In particular, it seems that one of two things tends to trigger Hunt suggestions -- rapid current growth or an interesting technology, the latter seeming to be more common. Thus, one often starts off trying to understand the technology, especially if this is not one's strong suit, and a quick check of claims and the competition may well reveal that either 1) while interesting, there is no current market for that technology which is likely to produce a tornado, 3) the technology is some years away from being ready to deliver in market terms, or 3) it becomes clear that the technology which was hyped is only slightly different than that possessed by competitors. In those cases, I think one could easily make an early report to this effect and skip the balance of the report.

To: Eric Jacobson who wrote (21877)	3/31/2000 5:34:00 PM
From: chaz	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 54805

Back step a pace or two. The GG is a conservative means to invest in technology growth. Moore makes this abundantly clear in his introduction, saying that the gorilla game proper is to meet the needs of the risk averse and capital-constrained (his italics, not mine) investor. "We ask our more sophisticated readers to respect that game, even as they go about finding ways to get around it." I submit that much of what we've been seeing is not suitable for a risk averse portfolio. As for restricting HUNT to companies suitable to the W&W list, that we can't know ahead of time which is which...well then, just how many biotech companies do you suppose belong on the W&W list. My opinion...zero. Do we then talk about them here? I say elsewhere with them. I won't quibble for a moment...a discussion of a high tech company in GG terms, or a HUNT report that shows the company to be a chimp or a prince...is instructive, and useful in that it keeps us focused on winners in the GG, not losers. I do reason that too much of what we're seeing is not GG suitable on either count. This is not about Hot Stocks, or Hot Sectors. It's not about tiny companies with no management record, no profits, and high burn rates. It is about high technology companies in computers, networking and telecommunications. There's lots going on in other areas of our economy, and some of it is surely exciting. But it doesn't belong here. Are we going to entertain reports on the gorilla of retailing. Well then, how about the gorilla of specialty retailing? Not tight enough!...we need the gorilla of specialty retailing in the building products market! Or consumer consumables, private labeling, and let's have one on regional dry cleaners! Technology...if we can do telescopes and image projections, why not something on ceramics, metallurgy, plastics, and let's get us a mole inside 3M, Monsanto and DuPont while we're at it. There sure otta be some new form factors in those places too, right? I'm not budging on my two points. Profits are safe. Lack of them is not. Suitable for the list means computers/networks/telecommunications. Endofrant. Chaz