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To: Bill Harmond who wrote (100504)	4/14/2000 12:35:00 AM
From: KeepItSimple	Respond to of 164684

>Those certificates or lines on your statement still mean tou own pieces >of dynamic, going businesses. The only problem is that the entire population of america can't "own" a piece of microsoft or cisco, unless they are willing to share 3 billion in profits divided by 290 million people. 10 bucks apiece. Not exactly the sort of thing 20% per year portfolio gains are made of. Are you beginning to see the insanity? Don't believe me? Read the words of Keith Benjamin, in today's fleckenstein wrap: ---------------------------------------- A reader sent me this amazing quote describing a former dead-fish's approach to analyzing Internet stocks. It appeared in the May 2000 issue of Red Herring magazine, and was taken from a speech by Keith Benjamin, formerly of Robertson Stephens but now in venture capital at Highland Capital Partners: "You take ridiculously priced currency, that has a ludicrous multiple of revenues. . . Let's get real, I mean I used to actually have to argue for a living and justify these valuations. Now, I think I did a pretty good job of fooling at least some of you in the audience, but OK, today I can step back and say there's no way I could have ever really justified any of the valuations, particularly of the larger companies. . . What can I say? God Bless America and the capitalist system." ------------------------------------- That's the fundamental problem of giant caps stocks growing wildly beyond the actual companies underlying growth rate. It makes no sense. It's just greater fool investing- a giant pyramid scheme. Companies rarely pay dividends these days so if you think you're "owning pieces of dynamic, going businesses" you are just deluding yourself. And i think, very shortly, a lot of people are going to learn this the hard way.