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To: AllansAlias who wrote (27492)	8/2/2000 9:00:12 AM
From: bela_ghoulashi	Respond to of 35685

Another interesting tidbit (people just aren't counting on gold anymore!): A Case of Tech Recklessness? By James Welsh Mutual Funds Columnist 07/28/2000 4:14 PM Given the market's behavior since April, mutual fund investors are now scared to death of technology funds. Right? Nope. According to results of a new survey by Charles Schwab & Co., investors continue to buy into volatile technology funds with something approaching abandon. Of 848 Schwab investors who were interviewed, 52% said they had put money into a tech fund in the past six months. In addition, more than 45% said they intend to pour more cash into tech funds soon. And of those who said they'd buy technology funds before the end of this year, more than 85% believed those funds would outperform all their other investments in the next five years. Those are some pretty startling numbers when you think about it, since technology has lately been among the most bloodied sectors in the fund world. By Thursday, the 247 science and technology funds followed by Lipper had a pitiful year-to-date average gain of 0.38%. In the past week, they have actually lost nearly 10%. Yet the Schwab poll strongly indicates that tech fund investors don't intend to be spooked. Fifty-four percent said they weren't concerned over volatility among tech stocks, and 32% even viewed the current situation as a good chance to buy low with hopes of selling high later on. Marching On So what does this tell us? A couple of things, actually: - Individual investors know that every parade gets some rain on occasion, but they're counting on long-run results. They clearly understand that technology reflects the deep and basic changes now affecting society and business. -- Only 5% of the survey respondents said they had actually redeemed shares in their technology funds in the past three months. So, if we're to consider these Schwab shareholders a picture of technology investors in microcosm, it follows that the massive sell-offs of April and May weren't caused by the little guy. Those big institutional investors were the ones who tipped over the apple cart. Pure technology probably should account for only a sliver of anyone's overall mutual fund portfolio. But for those who take that route, it's heartening to see this indication that they're in it for the long haul. Bottom line: Despite its troubles, the average technology fund still has a one-year average gain of almost 81%. Watch and learn, Wall Street. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------