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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rudedog who wrote (80622)	4/1/2000 5:04:00 PM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

>>>I wish Jack and El would regard this as a forum where people would at least occasionally like to have some serious discussions on how to make money instead of having to wade through 15 or 20 repetitive and content free posts a day from people who appear to have no particular interest in either the facts or investment strategy.<<< rude... sorry to wasted your time with my "repetetive" and "content free" posts. I've been down lately over CPQ's poor performance over the last year and my displeasure manifests itself as anger and what might be more well referred to as "contentment free" posts. Hopefully CPQ will spike up a little soon and relieve some of the pressure. Unfortunately, I don't have the knowledge or inclination required to get involved in options but I do congratulate you on your success in 1999. In the future I'll make an effort to be a little more positive. And, in the future, please address your "wishes" and critical comments to me directly instead of carping to N.R. Thank you, El

To: rudedog who wrote (80622)	4/2/2000 6:41:00 AM
From: rupert1	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

rudedog: I, too, congratulate you on your bottom line investment return on COMPAQ. But I do not think it justifies all your views. As I understand it, the main source of your success was option trading when the share price dipped to $18-19. That price dip contradicted all your prior analysis about the strength of the company and its new management. You have described yourself as a long, and the general message of your posts over the years has been that COMPAQ is a buy and hold. Those that bought and hold saw the price drop from $51 to $18. In your post you say that your knowledge and judgement about the management emboldened you to make those option trades. But in a previous post you said that at those low prices, all COMPAQ needed to do was to stay in business for you to profit from the trade. Given that COMPAQ had billions in cash and no debt, staying in business was a given and hardly the gift of the new management. It is probably true that most users of this board do not trade in options. Most do not have disposable resources over and above their long investments in COMPAQ and other stocks, to be able to make big option plays when their core holdings have been decimated by precipitous falls in the share price. I have a slight disagreement with you about the function of this board. It is one of the few ways that current, past and future shareholders can exchange views and, if used effectively, has the potential of communicating constructive criticism to the company. There is need for an effective forum which is sceptical of management. At the last AGM, shareholders made very clear to Rosen that they wanted Alta Vista to be floated and they wanted to participate in some way. The issue dominated the shareholders session. Rosen did no more than acknowledge their views. He gave no hint of what he was about to do a month or so later when he abandoned the current company policy on Alta Vista and sold it to CMGI. The Alta Vista episode demonstrates that COMPAQ shareholder meetings are ineffective. Many people have also complained about the ineffectiveness of Investor Relations. So we are left with this and other message boards. The predominant bias of all boards is towards longs. It is easy to be popular by speaking well of a company in which other discussants are invested. Shorts, critics or longs who sell are routinely insulted - either in general terms - for example, Go With Throttle Up references to them as "little people" "fools" "maggotts". I think the irritation Captain Jack's posts cause is in direct ratio to the insecurity some feel about their investment in COMPAQ. I say again that if the energy expended in attacking him and congratulating management was spent lobbbying for shareholders interest then the energy might be better spent.