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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric Wells who wrote (101125)	4/16/2000 7:23:00 PM
From: Randy Ellingson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Hi Eric- I commend you on your consistently bullish outlook. Holding stocks of strong companies for many years can be a very successful strategy - I've done it myself on a few, and have done well (although I'm all cash now). Wow (that you're all cash now). I presume that's not the case with any 401k or other tax-deferred, retirement investments you may have...? I don't really consider myself bullish. The long term trend is a very long term trend, and my understanding of the forces behind the average of about 11% returns from the S&P500 convinces me that two decades from now, it's almost certain that stocks (such as those making up the S&P500) will have proven to be very good investments (and probably the investment strategy with the highest returns). As for being bullish, I can say I'm optimistic (OK, that's pretty much bullish, right?) that the investments I have chosen will collectively outperform the market. Obviously I can be wrong, and also naturally it doesn't say that they won't drop in value for a couple/few more years before their values climb again. That's the risk I've tried to learn to ignore, in large part due to the long term trend. I take it on faith that we'll (i.e., the US economy) continue to grow wealth, through efficiency and information technology, as we improve our products and services. And I invest money I expect not to need for at least five years. <1. Do you think at Nasdaq 5000, stocks were appropriately valued? Essentially, yes, given the information available at the time. I hope it's not a cop-out to say "markets fluctuate". One can always ask whether or not the market is appropriately valued, but one can never really answer that with certainty. It's much more reasonable to address individual stocks, but even then I think it's dangerous to exclude potential investments based on valuation so long as you believe they in some financial sense justify that valuation. Justifying their valuation isn't alone enough to make them a good investment though, since there must be room for growth. I believe, for example, that the Internet stocks I own justified their valuations at their highs as well as at today's prices. And I don't see how the fluctuation in values changes that. 2. Do you believe that analyst recommendations and price targets in the internet and b2b space over the past six months are correct - and are you following them? I pay almost no attention to analysts and even less to their price targets. I'm not investing in the b2b space per se. 3. How long do you think it will take the market to get back to Nasdaq 5000? I don't know. How about you? And one question back to you. Do you think that increased participation by individual investors owning individual stocks is good for the stock market in the long term? Randy