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Technology Stocks : InfoSpace (INSP): Where GNET went! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: trouthead who wrote (19303)	5/24/2000 1:25:00 PM
From: Carolyn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28311

What fearful chicken littles? We are in a bear market, the Nas will go lower, IMHO, and will then rise again in the fall or winter. I wish I had a lot of cash to buy stuff now, but I don't, so will continue to hold. I don't play options or margin or short a stock, because I know I'd screw up, so will just hold. If you don't need the money now, you can ignore it for now. I also don't know enough about the effects various entities have on the stock market: the Fed, the Big Money, the White House, etc. Various schemes have been proposed all over SI, and the truth probably lies somewhere in between all this mess.

To: trouthead who wrote (19303)	5/24/2000 8:57:00 PM
From: tahoe_bound	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 28311

Junior B. If you are sticking with your objectives, no reason to panic. As long as you realize that timing stocks for the long term can also be a 2 way street, that great growth stories are subject to change, as are markets, and failure to adapt or recognize this can be devastating. Mutual fund managers, brokers and financial planners have really convinced the public at large that nothing bad can possibly happen long term. I think that is sheer folly, there is always a chance no matter how slight. They of course have vested interests, if they don't have your money with them, they can't make use of it for performance reasons or interest income, fees etc. Of course they want everyone to be long term, even if the market is saying to watch it, that a couple of years performance can get wiped out if you ride it all the way down without having any objective stop points or money management strategies to control devastating losses. Picture a long term investor in 1968, when inflation was next to nil, the productivity numbers were actually better than now even, and there was a sense that good times were here to stay. The mantra was the same as today. However, a poor 40 year old buy and holder who put most of their retirement in an S&P basket, would have had to wait until they were 55, in early 1983, just to break even again. I am not making that up. That is history. 14-15 years of basically a 0% performance in the S&P. (Warren Buffet has said recently he would not be surprised of another period like that to digest the parabolic gains of recent years) Long term underperformance can happen too, even if the possibility is small. It is disconcerting that this fact is largely ignored. If there are some positive things that we can draw from the rapid rise and fall of the markets, and especially of the tech, biotech and internet stocks during the past six months, one of them is that the euphoric times can be very short-lived, and that stocks can fall very far and very rapidly. Parabolic ramps up are usually followed by parabolic ramps down. My comments here that are triggered by some things I see in the posts here are meant in the best of spirit. In no way if you knew me in person would you think I was a full time bear, I only strive to adapt to conditions dictated by the market. (I bought GNET as I was very bullish on techs and really thought it was going to break out, but the volume and interest was not there) I was very bullish right after the horrible sentiment readings and nasty environment of Fall '98, I owned so much AMAT it wasnt funny. In summer 1997 I was very bullish and my main holding was COMS. A broker in NY told me to hold it for the long term, it will be a winner 3-5 years out(bought at $40, it was $57) I did not like the obviously deteriorating technicals. I asked him (my account was transferred to him on regular brokers sabbatical) if he would still espouse hanging on if this spiked way up, then fell back and for how long. His response? "Absolutely would hold it for years, long term is the best way." I told him that it sounded like he was trying to gamble that the long term picture would still look the same. Silence. COMS then went down to $20. Now it is still struggling, below $40, after spiking up in March big time. Simply buying and holding it would have been 3 years of dead money, his philosophy was to never sell, even if the damn thing spiked up and doubled which it did. He would never have advised selling at say $80 and waiting for a better entry point as the chart was pointing straight down. This same character I found out later was still urging clients to hold Iomega, I guess just to say and prove that they are brave long termers. He was a 15 year "veteran" of buy and hold strategies his schpiel was. What a disservice to the public. That is my opinion, I always have suspicions when it comes to tax preparers, (beholden to the IRS) brokers, realtors, car salesmen, financial planners et. al who have ulterior motives and are not worried about your finances in the least when they lay their heads down at night. There are always different sides to arguments, and one way should not be taken as gospel in my opinion. Basically, not many will be bullish on the markets than me when I see indications that conditions whether economic, sentiment, or technicals are turning around.