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Non-Tech : Auric Goldfinger's Short List -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (5062)	4/19/2000 1:26:00 PM
From: jbe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 19428

Dale, I found your article on "Gator Wrestlin'" (as well as your later April 16 article) both informative and useful. The tip I was most happy to get was the one about boxing one's short position; had not realized one could do that! At the same time, I feel that you are scolding me, and am tempted to try to defend myself. ;>) 1) First of all, about my having forgotten to place a stop, let's agree to blame it on Waterhouse! <g> I spent hours on Friday, and again on Monday, vainly trying to get through on the phone (I still don't have an online account)to make some trades. Finally, in a state of towering rage, I got in the car, drove to downtown Washington in the midst of a nasty downpour, ran into some police barricades (World Bank demos going on), found a place to park, and made it to Waterhouse 15 minutes before the bell. Good thing I don't own a revolver, or I might have taken it with me and shot up the place! In short, I was rattled! It happens... :-( 2) I took out very small short positions. They are not margined (I NEVER buy on margin), and I have plenty of cash in my portfolio. This is a learning experience for me. I am not planning to become a professional shorter; I only want to learn how to protect the rest of my portfolio somewhat when downturns come. And educations cost money. Even if I should lose a good hunk on these two, it really won't particularly hurt my overall portfolio that much. 3) On the "hot" sector Believe it or not, Telescan (which I use for screening) puts DISH, PGTV, and GMH into three separate industries: Electronics/radios.tv.tape, Broadcasting/tv, and Electronics/defense, respectively. (Some of their classifications mystify me.) In any event, the first industry (DISH's) has a high group rating (relative strength rating), putting it above the 90th percentile. The other two have a low rating, in the 31st and 34th percentile, respectively. And in the case of Broadcasting/tv, that weakness goes back at least 13 weeks. So I don't think it was too out of line to anticipate yet one more bad week. Now, for a couple of questions. 1) How can you be sure that a one-day price jump is a calculated short squeeze, especially on a day like Tuesday, when a whole slew of beaten-up stocks sprang to life again? (I see that PGTV does have a very small float when compared to the overall number of shares outstanding -- I was indeed remiss not to check that out first -- but it still has a lot more shares floating around out there than some of the stocks you have been shorting.) Just as longs often get paranoid about shorts, can shorts not get paranoid about squeezers? 2) And what's in it for squeezers? Do they just want to drive the price up, and then sell at the peak? Doesn't that require a degree of coordination? Otherwise, how can they be sure the shorts will take the bait? On another subject - ANF. I was pleased to see this piece on Motley Fool yesterday. biz.yahoo.com And, as background to the above, check out this February story MF ran on ANF back in February ("When Analysts Attack"). Very interesting -- especially if it is true. fool.com Finally -- did you know that Morningstar gives ANF an A+ in all four of its rating categories (growth, profitability, financial health, and evaluation)? quicktake.morningstar.com That is astonishing! Morningstar, in general, is an exceedingly tough grader. Well, I'm hanging on! jbe P.S. Both PGTV and PLUG are drifting slowly back down today. Let's hope the drift accelerates.

To: Dale Baker who wrote (5062)	4/20/2000 2:02:00 AM
From: put2rich	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19428

Dale, I agree that shorting is dangerous, especially in the maniac time. Remember I shorted PUMA too much compared to my account, and bailed w/ big loss. If I averaged up at big gap, and if just patient my loss should be big win now, just a month later. Now I ask you can you explain the growth.. <<PGTV is in the same sector as DISH and GMH, both very hot stocks. No surprise PGTV shot up too, or that it bounced among the first rebounders since this sector is slated for huge growth in coming years.>> I thought they are losing tons of money and you expect that they take customers away from Cable? or they will offer other services besides TV programmings? Best Regard,