Here's ChangeWave Investing's weekly newsletter. It's long but there's some interesting points made including a bit on the short-term outlook. I just got the book yesterday so haven't read it yet but I get the feeling it's going to confirm stuff we already know. BB
ChangeWave.com's WaveWire Weekly Making Your New Economy A More Profitable Place to Live
July 12, 2000: Volume 1, Issue 11 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You requested this ChangeWave Investing Weekly free e-newsletter by registering at changewave.com. Please feel free to forward this along to your friends and co-workers. If you wish to unsubscribe to this newsletter, please contact us at service@changewave.com.
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The companies mentioned in this week's WaveWire include: Alcatel (ALA); GlobeSpan (GSPN); Aware (AWRE); Yahoo! (YHOO); JDS Uniphase (JDSU); XM Satellite (XMSR); Phone.com (PHCM); VCampus (VCMP); GRIC Communications (GRIC); and Alteon (ATON).
IN THIS WEEK'S ISSUE 1. More About Answers And Questions. 2. Short-Term Market Forecast - Still Time For A Surfin' Safari. 3. The Kahuna's Big-Picture Rant - Volatility Is A Small Price To Pay. 4. Buzzwords Of The Week - All In The DSL Family. 5. Hot Sector Of The Week - Get Up To Speed With DSL. 6. Investable News On Our Favorite New Economy Companies. 7. Question-And-Answer Time - Stock Floats And After-Hours Trading. 8. Wave O' The Week Makes A Comeback 9. Check Out The Big Kahuna On AOL. 10. Wine Finds - The Great Taste From Down Under. 11. The Magic of "ChangeWave Investing"
1. DIGGING OUT FROM UNDER
We're finally beginning to climb the mountain of e-mail that we've received. Thanks for your questions and sticking to the rules. Here's a refresher course in case you've forgotten.
* Keep your questions short. * Check the website first. We have a glossary of terms and a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section. They can answer many of your questions. * Don't expect a direct answer. We may answer it in an upcoming Q&A. * The SEC forbids us from giving personal investment advice.
Send your questions to research@changewave.com.
Each week, we will try to address the questions that seem to crop up the most.
2. HOW'S THE WATER? OUR FEARLESS SHORT-TERM TECHNICAL MARKET FORECAST-Market Outlook: Surf's up: Earnings Strong and Stronger
I've been deluged with questions about a certain well-known investment advisory service and editor that I highly respect that predicts a 20-25% correction starting today and lasting for the next few months.
The prediction is based on the pre-announcement warnings of a handful of enterprise software companies that constitute a "elongated sales cycle in enterprise software companies" similar to the Y2K slow-down of late 1998.
My answer is to go to the ChangeWave Alliance field experts in enterprise software and ask them. Here is the gist of their real-world, first-hand observations: WRONG!!! (Sorry J.C.)
Take the Brio Technology (BRIO) blow-up. According to the guys who sell against them every day, BRIO blew-up because we are now living in a petabyte (a quadrillion bytes) data-storage warehouse world and BRIO's architecture can't handle it.
Take the BMC Industries (BMC) or Computer Associates (CA) blow-ups. To our Alliance members, this is old mainframe software houses selling into mainframe houses that are turning into JAVA/ XML-based application server houses. Look at the movement of BEA Systems (BEAS), ART Technology (ARTG), SilverStream Software (SSSW)-all JAVA-centric software.
My take is that the major ChangeWaves of the New Economy Enabling Industries are overtaking last-generation computing models. IBM is not the center of the computing world anymore.
I'm sure the advisor is right in his call that a major tech company is going to come in light on earnings over the next few days and blame it on "the sales cycle." What I can't fathom is how this will translate into a 20% Nasdaq correction in light of the 25% average earnings growth we will see in the upcoming weeks.
My advice is, of course, to turn any market panic sell-off into a buying opportunity-use volatility to your advantage. So, I guess I hope he's right.
But I would not bet the farm. In my world, the network is the guru. And our network says for the right companies and the best-positioned spaces of the New Economy enabling Technology Industries (NETI), surf is up and the water is great.
3. THE KAHUNA'S 21ST CENTURY INVESTING CONTEXT Investable Context: Volatility is the price of admission to High Growth-By Tobin Smith
Kids, let's face this one now before we get too far down the trail together: Day-to-day stock price volatility is the price of admission to the high-growth investment world. If you want the high returns, you are absolutely going to have to accept the volatility. No volatility, no big 50-100% portfolio pops for you.
So repeat after me: To get high growth, I must learn to ... A) Endure the brain damage of higher market volatility; B) Reduce unnecessary business risk by loading my growth portfolio with the companies best loaded with proprietary intellectual property and management to dominate explosive, long-term irreversible growth markets; C) Reduce unnecessary market risk by balancing my stock portfolio by industry and business risk according to my "Sleep well at night" personal risk acceptance-ometer.
Business risk is the risk of the business going broke. Industry or sub-sector risk is the maturity of the field-how old it is and how far along it is in its development. The more mature the industry or sub-sector, the lower the industry risk. The more profitable and cash laden a company, the lower the business risk.
Notice I did not mention "market risk." Market risk-the daily ups and downs of publicly traded securities markets-is out of your control. Balancing business and industry risk exposure to your personal comfort level is not.
Your job is to decide for yourself what percentage of your dough you want in the four basic kinds of investable growth industries-we call this your personal risk profile.
Game-Over Dominated Industries: A single company (G.O.D. stock for short) that commands dominant market share and a majority of the market valuation dominates the industries or sub-sectors. Think Microsoft.
Emerged Leader Industries: These industries have a market-share leader that is cash-flow profitable and likely to claim the Game-Over Dominator crown. Think JDS Uniphase.
Emerging Leader Industries: These industries are new enough that two or more profitable/soon-to-be profitable contenders are fighting it out for the top spot. Think Broadvision and Vignette in the e-commerce platform software space.
Late-Stage Venture Capital Industries: These industries are all potential, no profits and the most speculative of the bunch. Think virtually all dot-com spaces or single-drug biotechs. Numerous players have a shot at the title or one company that invented the industry has a shot at winning it all.
Here's your five-step plan to live with volatility.
1) First, if you are going to invest your money in the growth, aggressive growth and speculative growth industries, you HAVE to do a personal gut check to get the right personal risk profile mix.
The best way I know how to judge if you have too much risk for your personal risk profile is the sleep at night test. If you miss sleep worrying about certain stocks, you have too much money in 'em-get out of 'em and rebalance.
2) Limit your sectors to ones growing with as great a degree of certainty as humanly possible. We, of course, recommend you limit your sectors to the New Economy enabling Technology Industries. We list the ones with the greatest magnitude of growth and market opportunity-we call 'em "SuperSectors"-at ChangeWave.com.
3) Limit your stocks to the dominant leaders/co-leaders of the sub-sectors within the SuperSector according to your business risk profile.
4) Match your stock picking to the percentage of business risk you are willing to accept. (See the example below.)
5) Invest in sectors you deeply believe in. The No. 1 thing you have to have, to endure volatility, is a deep, deep belief in the certainty of the irreversible growth ahead of you (or the strength and duration of the "wind at your back" for those of you who prefer a sailing metaphor).
For example, with enterprise data storage needs doubling every six months for the foreseeable future, that area is a SuperSector that we all can understand and deeply believe in.
If you had $10,000 for the sector, and were looking to put 25% of your money in each of the four categories of risk, you'd build your stock picks like this (If you want the actual stocks, try our paid advisory service.):
Game-Over Dominated Space: Storage area networks (i.e. EMC, that's a gimme);
Emerged Leader Space: Fiber channel switches or network storage appliances;
Emerging Leader Space: Low-cost network attached storage;
Late-Stage Venture Capital: The data storage service space or domain-fault tolerant storage technology.
Add a few more SuperSectors you deeply believe in, arrange your stock selections according to the business risk of sub-sectors or spaces, and now you have a diversified and risk-balanced growth portfolio.
When you have matched your convictions and your stomach to your portfolio, riding out our modern high-volatility markets is a helluva lot easier.
4. NEW ECONOMY INVESTING BUZZWORDS OF THE WEEK: ALL IN THE DSL FAMILY
Have your Internet experiences left you feeling the need for speed? Well you and about 10 million others in the U.S. alone feel the same way. And when tons of people switch from an existing thing (in this case 56k modems) to broadband high speed connectivity, we call that a ChangeWave. And where there's a Wave there's new wealth for us to make.
Among the most popular high-bandwidth technologies out there now (cable, ISDN and Satellite), DSL gets the most ink. And for good reason.
In theory, Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) hold out the promise of a convenient, high-speed connection along current phone lines with minimal fuss. Before you attack us, look at the first two words of that last sentence, "in theory." The reality of DSL is somewhere south of that point, but it still has the potential for greatness, provided some of the kinks get worked out.
To make money off this ChangeWave you have to understand the basics.
DSL allows an always-on, high-bandwidth Internet connection (at transfer rates up to 6.1 megabits per second downstream, but usually limited to 1.5 megabits for individual connections) over regular copper telephone lines. Most DSL connections allow you to use your telephone for conversations while maintaining that high-speed computer connection, thus eliminating another hole in the wall or wire that needs to be snaked here or there. Ironically, the science that permits this comes from the limits of analog transmissions.
Analog information utilizes a small portion of the capacity that is available over copper wires. The analog transmission limits of these lines top out around 56 kbps (in practice about 53 kbps) for data connections with ordinary modems, which is slowed by the conversion of data from digital to analog and back again. DSL connections eliminate this bottleneck by allowing the digital data to remain digital and the analog info to stay analog, making higher speeds possible.
The problems with DSL? First, the customer must be close enough to the telephone central office (within 18,000 feet or, for our international readers, 5.5 kilometers) to be eligible for the service. Second, and more importantly, there are too many horror stories that seem to come out of the installation process.
Admittedly, the complainers are the "squeaky wheels" who may be exaggerating their problems, but anecdotal evidence about setup nightmares will scare anyone contemplating DSL. If you choose DSL for your home, be prepared for the installation experience to test your patience. Add to these the problems of old wiring, bad circuits and other structural obstacles and you wonder why anyone bothers.
Here's why. If you get past the hassles to a fast connection, you've just taken a hit of the most addictive feeling in cyberspace. Type in a web address, click and, boom, you're there. No logging in-it's always on. Like to download files? There's no time to get a cup (or two) of joe while you wait. Get your file and get on with your life. Access to broadband is like the stuff that gets famous people with more money than brains into the Betty Ford Center. Once you get a little, you can't get enough.
We could fill this entire newsletter with alphabet soup in a vain attempt to explain the various terms affiliated with DSL, but we'll spare you the dissertation and hit a few of the highlights instead. Take it away Mr. Science ...
xDSL-This term refers to the assorted flavors of the DSL connections including, but not limited to, ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), HDSL (High bit-rate DSL) and RADSL (Rate adaptive Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line).
SDSL (Single line DSL)-A single-line DSL solution that is symmetric, i.e. upload and download speeds are the same. This service is most expensive.
ADSL (Asymmetric DSL)-This technology, designed for home use, trades slower upload speeds for faster downloading. The great thing about ADSL connections is that analog signals can be transmitted simultaneously along the low end of the signal transmission negating the need for a new phone line for the broadband connection. ADSL is growing in popularity and requires a signal splitter to facilitate normal phone functions and a special ADSL modem.
Central office (CO)-This is the physical building where the local switching equipment is located. DSL lines running from a subscriber's home connect at their local central office. Although the local phone company owns the CO, it may contain equipment from one or more other service carriers who lease space there. So, it could be possible to get DSL service from another provider even if your local phone company says it's not available.
Local loop-The line that runs between the home and the local central office.
DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer)-This mechanism at the central office links customer DSL connections to a single high-speed line. When the phone company receives a DSL signal, an ADSL modem with a splitter detects voice calls and data. Voice calls are sent to the regular network and data are sent to the DSLAM, where it passes through the data transport protocol to the Internet, then back through the DSLAM and ADSL modem before returning to the customer's PC. The more DSLAMs a phone company has, the more DSL customers it can support.
Everybody still with us? OK, it's all over now. Mr. Science has left the building.
If you want to know more about DSL including availability, installation experiences and technical information, take some time to visit the extremely useful DSL Reports website (http://www.dslreports.com). More than likely, this site has answers to questions that you haven't even thought about asking yet.
What are your favorite hot New Economy buzzwords? Send your suggestions for the hottest emerging spaces in the New Economy to research@changewave.com.
5. HOT NEW ECONOMY SECTORS AND SPACES (i.e. SUBSECTORS): GET UP TO SPEED WITH DSL
The Revolutionary Monster ChangeWave We're Riding: The Broadband Infogenesis ChangeWave involving the shift of the world's communication understructure from narrow-band connectivity to a high-bandwidth data pipe.
DSL Killer Value Proposition: 100-times faster downloads than a 56k modem. Indy 500 champ Juan Montoya doesn't want to get stuck in traffic after piloting his racer around the Brickyard at 220 mph. So why would anyone want to return to the 56k slow lane once they've experienced the speed of a broadband connection?
The Addressed Market Opportunity: Look for exponential growth in DSL installs. A study by the Piper Jaffray investment firm predicts the DSL market will grow from 770,000 households to 12.9 million by 2003. The DSL market is likely to catch on in homes with household incomes over $75,000, and the opportunity is even bigger in Europe where deregulation and new phone network construction will make DSL an attractive Internet option.
How To Best Ride the DSL ChangeWave: Stay away from the DSL service providers for now. Judging by the constant outcry around installation and service problems this is not the place a wise investor wants to be. Instead, look for plays among the equipment makers and companies working to ease the installation of DSL service.
Some of our favorite stocks in this sector include:
Alcatel-ALA-French telecommunications equipment and systems company Alcatel is the dominant player in DSLAMs. ALA's wide reach covers networking, electronic components, and power and telecom cables. Alcatel recently signed a deal with one of China's leading optical fiber and cable manufacturers to make optical fiber in that country.
Alcatel is one of France's largest industrial companies with interests in power generation equipment, nuclear power systems and consumer electronics through its stake in the Thomson-CSF unit. Company revenues rose 7.7% to $5.84 billion for the quarter ending in March. ALA closed Tuesday at 72 7/8, up a little more than 1%.
GlobeSpan-GSPN-GlobeSpan manufactures advanced DSL integrated circuits that enable high-speed data transmission over the local loop. The company's products are sold as chip sets to DSL equipment makers and are used for transmission applications like Internet access, networking and telecommuting. GSPN recently completed its acquisition of iCompression technologies to accelerate its efforts to complete its system-on-a-chip product for the voice over DSL and Internet markets.
GlobeSpan's customers include Cisco and Lucent, which performs most of the company's production work. Company revenues rose 262% to $31.1 million for the quarter ending in March. GSPN closed Tuesday at 119 3/8, up about 3.6%.
Aware-AWRE-Aware makes hardware and software that accelerates Internet access over current copper-wire phone lines. In addition to the line of DSL chipsets, routers and modems that assist phone company upgrades, Aware's compression software helps firms with video, image and data transmission and storage.
Aware's customer list includes Analog Devices, Lucent and Intel. Company revenues rose 49% to $6.4 million for the quarter ending in March reflecting increased royalties and improved margins. AWRE closed Tuesday at 55 1/4, down about 5.8%.
6. INVESTABLE NEWS: CLASSIC GROWTH SECTORS
Yahoo!-YHOO-(July 11, 2000) Yahoo stockholders are probably saying the company name with a bit more vehemence. The Internet content Goliath exceeded earnings forecasts in the second quarter by 2 cents per share. Yahoo earnings totaled $74 million, close to three times the $27 million earned in the same quarter 1999. Sales growth was also something to shout about, rising from $129 million in the second quarter of 1999 to $270 million in the same quarter this year. Yahoo! closed down 4% Tuesday at 105 1/2. However, it shot up in after-hours trading. Upshot: Short-term positive. OK, we know Yahoo! is a G.O.D. stock, but everyone feared their numbers would be down because of lost ad revenue. Clearly, though all Internet firms struggle with that problem, Yahoo! is managing nicely so far.
INVESTABLE NEWS: AGGRESSIVE GROWTH SECTORS
JDS Uniphase-JDSU-(July 11, 2000) In a powerhouse move, JDSU moved to purchase SDL Inc., which makes fiber-optic lasers. The purchase price was estimated at $41 billion as JDSU positioned itself to become the Game-Over Dominator of fiber-optic technology. Last month, JDSU paid $15 billion for communications equipment manufacturer E-Tek Dynamics.
The purchase price this time was about 50% above SDL's closing price and sent the stock soaring, which drove JDSU stock down significantly. JDSU closed Tuesday down 5.4% to end the day at 95 11/16. Upshot: Positive. If the sale actually goes through, JDSU is well positioned to become the dominant player in a very hot sector. They plan to use SDL technology to build out advanced communication networks, as well as increase their own production capacity.
INVESTABLE NEWS: EMERGING GROWTH SECTORS
XM Satellite-XMSR-(July 11, 2000) XM Satellite did its best to counter the good news of the Sirius satellite launch. XMSR announced it has received $235 million in funding commitments. Fifty million dollars of the new money comes from American Honda, which became a strategic investor. XMSR closed up Tuesday 8.3% to end the day at 39. Upshot: Positive. This market is ripe for the taking. One or both of these companies will be in the forefront.
Phone.com-PHCM-(July 11, 2000) Phone.com announced a big deal by signing up AirTel India, that nation's largest mobile operator. AirTel licensed the wireless (WAP) platform that Phone.com has designed. AirTel is part of a venture involving British Telecom and they previously licensed Phone.com's MyPhone platform for building its worldwide mobile portal. Phone.com closed down 2.9% Tuesday to end the day at 66 1/8. Upshot: Positive. Phone.com is a prime player in the wireless sector and India has a large potential market.
VCampus-VCMP-(July 11, 2000) VCampus, which manages web-based learning programs, made a nice B2G (Business to Government) deal this week. It announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs will begin a six-month e-learning trial program. The plan calls for 9,000 VA workers to take part in about 300 courses from VCampus. The stock closed down almost 2.9% to end Tuesday at 8 1/2. Upshot: Positive. If VCampus is going to continue its push into B2G, then it will be riding two ChangeWaves not one-B2G and E-Learning. That has to help.
GRIC Communications-GRIC-(July 11, 2000) GRIC continues to make inroads into China. They just signed an agreement with China Netcom Corp. Ltd. to use GRIC's Voice Over Internet Protocol services in China. This pact comes on the heels of another similar agreement with China's JiTong Communications. GRIC closed down almost 5.5% to end Tuesday at 15 1/8. Upshot: Positive. GRIC is making major inroads into the largest potential market in the world.
7. GOT A QUESTION?
Now this week's questions...
Question: Could you explain stock float?
The float is the number of shares of a stock that are outstanding and available for trading to the public. This is sometimes called the public float. To calculate this, take the total number of shares in the company and subtract those owned by insiders, employees and other long-term shareholders from the total shares outstanding. Several websites also provide this information, such as Yahoo!Finance.
Question: Could you explain how the after-hours market works?
First, let's explain after-hours trading. This involves the trading of stock issues or securities while the exchanges are closed. Until recently, this was the domain of professional traders and institutional investors, but many of the consumer online trading services, like Datek Online to name one, are offering this feature.
With more investors taking control of their portfolios, they want the opportunity to take advantage of news that comes after the markets close just like the pros. This is the good news.
But, you knew a "but" was coming, there are huge disadvantages to after-hours trading. One, the liquidity (or number of shares trading) is much lower than during normal market hours. This may lead to greater volatility in the issue, especially following news that comes after the bell. Whether this works to your advantage could solely depend on luck. In addition, there's a chance you may not be able to get all or any of the shares you wanted.
Two, the prices in the after-hours market may not reflect the prices that were available at market close or the opening of trading the next day. This could leave an investor with a bad feeling if the after-hours prices are exaggerated in response to news and they pay too much for an issue.
For example, on June 22 during the flurry of activity when Rambus (RMBS) settled its patent suit with Hitachi last month, RMBS shares had a huge run-up in the after-hours markets, trading as high as 144 1/64. The price at the market close June 22 was 97 1/8 and the stock closed at 114 11/16 June 23 and never went much beyond $120 per share during that day's session. How would you feel if you had bought it at 144?
We're not too fond of the after-hours markets for situations precisely like this. Remember our goal here-to buy and own our stocks wisely.
8. WAVE O' THE WEEK
Back by popular demand, the Wave O' The Week returns. Each week we will list the stock that is the Wave O' The Day on our website. You can also access this info by going to changewave.com early each trading day and getting both a Wave and a Wipeout O' The Day.
Today we have Alteon.
Here's a stock market reaction that's easy to analyze. Alteon (ATON), which makes products to speed up web and network servers, reported it reached profitability three quarters ahead of schedule. ATON also reported 80% higher earnings for the fourth quarter. Alteon shares jumped 29.9% to 131 1/8 in Tuesday's trading.
9. THE BIG KAHUNA ONLINE
If you use AOL, catch Tobin Smith on the Sage Online on America Online every Thursday this summer at 6 p.m. EST. For AOL browsers only, you can view AOL MarketTalk produced by Sage via AOL keyword: MarketTalk.
10. WINE FINDS
This week it's a great wine from down under-Penfold's Bin 389. It's a blend of Syrah and Cabernet (the Aussies call Syrah "Shiraz" for some not-so-obvious reason). Big in the mouth, but soft and drinkable today. Under $22 in most places. Order this at a big league restaurant and I guarantee the sommelier comes over to compliment you on your taste and value wine picking. (It's happened to me multiple times). If you are new to Australian vino, you are in for a big treat. Cheers.
Go to changewave.com
11. "I WOULD JUST DIE IF I HAD TO WAIT ANOTHER FIVE HOURS FOR THIS BOOK"
While many WaveWatchers may have very well echoed these sentiments in the days leading up to the release of my book, (please humor me for just a moment) the credit for this heartfelt bellow of anticipation goes to a 12-year-old English lad camped outside the local bookstore-just moments before the new "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" went on sale.
With pre-publication sales of close to 1 million copies, and a plot that was more closely guarded than nuclear secrets at Los Alamos (actually, a lot more judging from recent headlines), the book has already become the biggest selling book in e-tailing history.
OK, I admit it. There may not have been any reported sightings of Big Kahuna costume parties in the streets last week, but "ChangeWave Investing" did quietly capture for the first time, the No.5 spot on the monthly New York Times best-seller list. Thanks again for all your support.
If you haven't already gotten your copy, just follow the link below for big savings. Though we can't promise you any magic potions, lighting-bolt tattoos or maroon capes, you will find the best recipe for picking the next monster stocks of the New Economy. Go now:
amazon.com
HELP US DISCOVER THE NEXT 1,000% MOVER.
If you have enjoyed our Weekly WaveWire, then I have a favor to ask of you. Are there others who you think would also get value from our work? If so, please forward this issue to them and invite them to become a WaveWatcher at: changewave.com. The revolution is on and you are lucky enough to be in early. The more people we have, the better our chances of discovering the next 1,000% mover. Thanks again for your support.
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