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To: Tom K. who wrote (7603)	5/5/2000 10:57:00 PM
From: Uncle Frank	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 8096

You apparently don't know my nephew, Voltaire, Tom. He isn't an interloper to this thread, and is far from unknown on SI. In point of fact, he demonstrated great restraint in his post, considering the provocation he has been subjected to. Voltaire was the Knight in shining armor who came to Jill's rescue after she was abandoned, and as such is a central figure in this soap opera. I would be honored to serve as a character reference for the venerable Voltaire. unc

To: Tom K. who wrote (7603)	5/5/2000 11:25:00 PM
From: SecularBull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8096

Tom, welcome to the thread. Please feel free to share more with us in the future. Regards, LoF

To: Tom K. who wrote (7603)	5/6/2000 8:21:00 AM
From: Jill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 8096

I welcome him to the thread. Agree w/ Uncle Frank, if he's publicly insulted a lot, he has the right to make a post (and its been just one so far--fairly contained, I'd say.) Had some thots this morning. About Voltaire, edamo et al. This will be a long post but meant to be fair. Here's the context: I agree with a recent post of t2s on JDSU thread: GT, The funny part was when Ralph Bloch mentioned that the baby boomers had been saying that his analysis does not work anymore (ie the past 5 years). He was sick and tired of these people. That was the most amusing part. Just image all the gains people missed out on in those years, if they had listened to these type of "gurus". TA just don't realize that the charts don't dictate future events; it is liquidity and psychology for the most part. In the absence of huge mutual fund inflows, TA can work. I use it to trade a little bit but the real money is made when one is about to spot the uptrend and the TA experts usually don't (or they see it in the rear view mirror<g>). I happen to have learned more about the psychology of the market from Voltaire than anybody. He occasionally makes mistakes, even big ones, but he has an uncanny feel, particularly for upward momentum and when it's going to end--as well as the market gyrations. His feel for the market, along with the G&K threads DD, has made more retirees in the last year than the whole of America probably deserves. <g> Ed is a seasoned investor, too, but he makes the kind of mistakes that he points out in others, and I don't think it's in as helpful a spirit as he might contend. It would be more helpful to have him analyze both his successes and his own errors. For instance, swayed by momentum and hype, he bought AOL at 170 some time ago, at the very top, before it retreated back to 100 (or maybe less, I don't recall.) He seems to have stayed in DELL for a long time after it was slammed, maybe for good reasons (i.e. cost basis 0 or less than 0), on the other hand, he advocates not to consider taxes but to take profits. What if he'd liquidated his DELL position and invested it immediately in other high techs he likes--back when DELL got slammed? Or, last summer, when QCOM was at a basis of what now would probably be about 15 or 20 (I'm guestimating from memory) I turned his attention to it by PM several times, did a bit of research on some questions he had, for which he thanked me. I believe he didn't invest much in it but I do know that later he traded it for nice profit--selling puts and calls on lows and highs of the volatility. We all did that. I even took to playing covered calls during QCOMS 125-145 floppy dance for several months. There was good money to be scalped. Thus I agree with a comment here that it isn't years of investing that make someone an expert--but simply how they are performing. Here's another point in that vein: ed apparently went to all cash, a smart move, in order to sell puts--but perhaps that second action wasn't such a smart move. He didn't expect the NAZ correction either or he would've waited. He posted here that cnxt would turn at 70, glbx at 40. Thus all the put positoins went underwater. Did he buy them back? What were his paper losses then? Would he mind sharing? I'd find his reasoning on both the smart move (all cash) and the less smart move (sell puts while the NAZ was in a downward trend) much more enlightening than his focus on newbies, or people he feels make mistakes and are inexperienced, or how he imagines their personal lives and qualitieis. There is nothing wrong with posting your opinions and predictions, or making mistakes. How can we not? I'd like to hear follow-up on the mistakes that ed, like everybody else, makes. Nobody can predict Mr. Market. Everybody is human. Everybody fouls up. So what I think is off base here is exactly what the hilarious sendup in Voltaire's post pointed out. And, of course, I don't see that personal attacks are helpful. I was pissed off about them, and said so. Hope that helps, Tom.