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Strategies & Market Trends : MDA - Market Direction Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Benkea who wrote (52154)	5/25/2000 7:49:00 PM
From: bobby beara	Respond to of 99985

Amat tailed into it's broken H&S pattern neckline today 207.61.23.98 Intc: if you draw the trendlines of the dec and jan lows, and the two recent lows and of the decending tops line you have a triangle that is near the point. get my point, somethin's up. semiconductors (and csco) are the tech bulls last stand. with all this volitility, probably we have all the deriv traders at CMB playing nas stocks are in the twilight zone and anybody that expected the nikkei to break out (and many were) and were leveraged long are now sushi -g- not to mention the biggest roc move in the crb since into the 1973 top, big violent moves in oil, big violent move in gold last october. i think a whole bunch of those "who WANTS to be a MILLIONAIRE" (notice i used the regis emphatic -g-) at trading desks are pigs that are headed to Farmer's John's bacon plant -gg- anybody want to look at the perfect year long H&S pattern, look at the singapore straits times ^sti

To: Benkea who wrote (52154)	5/28/2000 11:05:00 AM
From: UnBelievable	Respond to of 99985

A Backdoor Buy on Berkshire Hathaway The New York Times - Investing Diary May 28, 2000 It's safe to say that Warren E. Buffett has been one frustrated chief executive of late. Class A shares of Berkshire Hathaway are down 29 percent from their high in June, 1998. And in Berkshire's annual report, released in March, the sage of Omaha broached the possibility of a stock repurchase program to bolster Berkshire's share price, which would be a first for the company. Before launching into a buyback, it may behoove Mr. Buffett to consider a less expensive route: shares of Boulder Total Return Fund, a $203.6 million closed-end fund. As of April 28, the fund had fully 21.9 percent of its assets invested in Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares, its largest holding. Another 8.5 percent of the fund is invested in Berkshire Class B shares. Like many closed-end funds, Boulder trades at a steep discount to its net asset value; Boulder's was 28.1 percent as of May 19. Unlike mutual funds, which redeem and issue shares at net asset value, closed-end funds issue a fixed number of shares, which may trade at a premium or a discount to their assets. In the case of Boulder, new fund shareholders are in effect getting almost a third off Berkshire's current price. For good measure, 1 percent of the fund was invested in Wesco Financial, an insurance holding company in Pasadena, Calif., of which Charles T. Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire, is chief executive. The kicker is that the fund is leveraged. It has issued $77.5 million worth of preferred shares, yielding 4.95 percent, and invested the proceeds into its portfolio, giving it an added upside if its holdings perform well. The situation has not escaped notice. The fund is recommended in the June issue of The Investor's Guide to Closed-End Funds, a monthly newsletter published by Thomas J. Herzfeld Advisors in Miami. Mr. Herzfeld, who also manages about $100 million, calls Boulder Total Return his biggest position, one that will soar as value stocks like Berkshire come back into favor. "When the leadership rotates, the N.A.V. rises and the discount narrows," Mr. Herzfeld said. The fund has other interesting twists. Among its top 10 holdings are three other closed-end fixed income funds: ACM Government Securities, Putnam Premier Income Trust and Putnam Master Intermediate Trust. These traded at discounts of 13.3 percent, 17.8 percent, and 18.4 percent on May 19, respectively, and currently yield 12.1 percent, 11.1 percent and 10.8 percent. So, the Boulder investor gets a discount on the already discounted assets in those funds while picking up those stratospheric yields. (Boulder itself yields 7.6 percent). Boulder's portfolio manager, Stewart Horejsi (pronounced Ho-rish), assumed management of the fund last August, after wresting control from its previous management. According to Carl Johns, the fund's treasurer, Boulder began buying Berkshire shares last September at an average price of about $57,000 for each Class A share. They closed Friday at $57,400. The fund's shares have returned a negative 11.1 percent since August, but Mr. Johns advises patience. He points out that Mr. Horejsi is in the same boat as they are. His family trust owns 42 percent of the fund. RICHARD TEITELBAUM