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Non-Tech : The Critical Investing Workshop -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: abstract who wrote (13035)	4/13/2000 10:31:00 PM
From: Clappy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 35685

abstract, I feel as if your post was overlooked by many. It's the best darn thing I've read all day. Keep up the good work! It's nice to have you on this porch. -Clappy

To: abstract who wrote (13035)	4/13/2000 10:41:00 PM
From: lindelgs	Respond to of 35685

Hi Abstract, please don't make this incredible writing of yours scarce - I love it, I read it twice. Thank you. Legs

To: abstract who wrote (13035)	4/13/2000 11:40:00 PM
From: Dealer	Respond to of 35685

abstract! Welcome to your porch! What bothers me the most is that you have been sitting there all this time and never posted. I skim a lot of post....(looking for those 4 letter words..just kidding) but I read your post twice and enjoyed it each time. We all have jobs to do and we can't afford to pay you anything (especially in this day and market) but I would love to see you post more often, at least every time you have something to say. You bet you are pretty good with the one liners too. I won't get you a chair or a drink because by golly you been around long enough you know where everything is, grab and fix her yourself. Thank you again for posting. I hope you already consider yourself one of us and if there is anything we can do to help you, just call on one of us. We are here to help each other in any way we can. I would also like to use you to invite any others that are afraid to come and post to do so.....we're kind of silly sometimes but we have a lot of love to share on this porch. Ya missing something if ya don't let us know ya out there....and you know what else we are also missing something by not being able to meet you. I think we ought to have an official weekend to welcome all new posters. What is wrong with this weekend. Starting this Friday after close of market. Again Welcome from all the porchers May all your dreams come true! dealer

To: abstract who wrote (13035)	4/13/2000 11:49:00 PM
From: elpolvo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 35685

abbie- i like-a way yew tock. -carl

To: abstract who wrote (13035)	4/14/2000 3:40:00 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35685

abstract, All I can say is don't wait so long before you post again. WOW! Very well said. w2

To: abstract who wrote (13035)	4/14/2000 4:49:00 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 35685

Tech Stock Excesses Seen Fueling U.S. Market Rout By Eric Auchard Thursday April 13 5:22 PM ET <<NEW YORK (Reuters) - The party was fun, but -- wooooooh! -- the hangover. Investors who started the New Year giddy with forecasts of an impending spending boom on Internet technology appear to have uncorked the champagne too soon as the eye-popping gains have gone flat amid a broad-based rout of the sector. And while individual stocks could come back as they report better-than-expected quarterly results this month, analysts warn the sector has far to fall to wring out recent excesses, even if demand for technology remains undiminished. ``My view is that stocks are probably going to be rough for a while. I don't think it's going to be a quick bottom,' said Steve Milunovich, chief technology analyst at Merrill Lynch. 'We are going to have days where we are going to get rebounds, but on the whole, I am still a bit cautious in the near term.' What went wrong at a party that held so much promise? Technology analysts and fund mangers blame the trouble on the wild-eyed valuations investors gave to newly public 'dot-com' stocks that reached flood-tide levels in the fall. The huge gains for the Internets brought a general laxity about how to measure the performance of tech companies, even the more established players, spelling trouble as upward momentum in the sector dissipated over the past month. Renewed concerns that personal computer software bellwether Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) would report lackluster results next week sparked the latest sell-off on Wednesday. That added to last week's disappointment over the software company's failure to settle the government antitrust case against it, which cut 30 percent off the price. Still, Microsoft is just one of many excuses for investors looking to pull the plug on technology stocks -- first selectively, then sector by sector and increasingly across the boards. From the peak of the share-buying spree in mid-March -- when the technology-driven Nasdaq composite index was up 24 percent on the year -- the market has reversed course and turned negative. It is now down nearly 10 percent from Jan. 1. And the sell-off is not limited to the new crop of dot-com companies, most of which have yet to show a penny of earnings amid the expensive race to establish a brand identity on the Internet frontier. Many of these stocks are more than 50 percent off their recent highs. Indeed, the pressure has spread to semiconductors, communications and personal computers -- companies with real earnings and revenues. Their vulnerability reflects stock prices that are inexplicable by any traditional measure -- valuations derived in part from the afterglow of Internet excitement. Major names in technology stocks such as Cisco Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:CSCO - news), Applied Materials Inc. (NasdaqNM:AMAT - news) and Dell Computer Corp. (NasdaqNM:DELL - news), which had held up well in recent weeks relative to smaller firms, have been dragged down with the rest in the last few sessions. Wall Street pros compare plunging technology stock prices to ``catching falling knives' under current market conditions. Technology analysts and fund managers complain that the increasingly sharp selling waves seen in recent weeks on the Nasdaq stock market are fueled by emotion, not fundamental analysis or changes in the outlook for technology businesses. Janet Ramkissoon, a technology fund manager with Quadra Capital, a New York investment boutique, said solid companies had been unfairly tarred by ``dot-coms' that put off running profitable businesses as they slip in secondary stock offerings that dilute the value of the stock of existing shareholders. ``There has been too much complacency by investors just rubber-stamping opinions of sell-side analysts. Wall Street should be more responsible about picking apart the valuations,' she said. Such financial shenanigans extend beyond Internet firms to a wide range of technology stocks, she said. As an example of the continuing excesses in the market, Ramkissoon offers as an example the earnings report of Rambus Inc. (NasdaqNM:RMBS - news), which on Wednesday took a massive $177 million charge to write off the value of employee stock options. The ``one-time' mostly non-cash charge was more than 10 times the revenue reported by the high-flying maker of computer memory technology, she noted. ``It is time to step back and look at balance sheets and companies with tons of revenue and real earnings,' she said. 'Rambus revenues are skimpy. ... This just stretches every definition of reasonableness.' Ramkissoon distinguishes these from companies in her fund such as software maker i2 Technologies Inc. (NasdaqNM:ITWO - news), Dell Computer Corp. (DELL.O), chip equipment maker KLA-Tencor Corp. (NasdaqNM:KLAC - news) and communications chip maker Altera Corp. (NasdaqNM:ALTR - news). Investors once could not own enough of anything e-commerce, business-to-business or Internet infrastructure. Now they are turning away from many such companies, as hyped-up business plans hit up against the new-found aggressiveness long-established retailers, manufacturers and industrial conglomerates. The party mood turned increasingly uglier in the past month amid signs that many recently public Internet firms were already cash-strapped. Many would need to flood the markets with still more stock to fund operations, further delaying already distance promises of profitability. Meanwhile, hundreds more initial offerings were waiting in the wings, and so sapping demand for existing shares. In a sign the deluge may be ebbing, SciQuest.com Inc.(NasdaqNM:SQST - news), a business-to-business distributor of life sciences products, said on Wednesday it had withdrawn its plans to sell additional shares, citing unfavorable market conditions. It said it had enough financial capital to conduct operations into the future and that company management and other insiders had no incentive to sell new stock at current depressed levels -- at least 80 percent below its record high.>>