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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (37179)	9/7/2000 1:59:49 PM
From: Ian@SI	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

Mike, At worst, the analcysts create new, unexpected buying opportunities for informed investors. Those who sell tend to be the weakest hands with the least firsthand knowledge of the business fundamentals of the companies for which they hold shares. IMO, those weak hands include momentum oriented fund managers and TA oriented day traders. Knowledge of fundamentals, confidence and patience allows one to take full advantage of the opportunities being presented to us. JMHO, Ian.

To: michael97123 who wrote (37179)	9/8/2000 5:02:27 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

The problem is that too many people listen to the analysts. An investor should listen to the CEO and the CFO's comments during the quarterly earnings report. If you miss the report you can usually find the reports on the company's home page, an SI thread or a news wire thread. If I want to know the future prospects of my company, I listen to a company spokesperson because that is about as close as I am going to get to the truth. Spokespersons from good companies do not want to mislead you because, if they give you incorrect information, you could sue them, and the SEC would get around to an investigation of the company ~ eventually. On the other hand, company spokespersons cannot predict the future precisely so I think it is important to read your company's press releases in between earning's reports. And for good measure, I'd look at the company's SEC filings. An analyst analyzes data. A friend of mine is an analyst. She got her job because she had a Master's degree in library science. When she got her very well paid job as an analyst, she couldn't even use Windows, and she doesn't know the first thing about computers. Yet she does tech research and turns that information over to her boss. Of course, there are knowledgeable tech analysts who know quite a bit about the industry that they cover, but all the information that they read is subjective and open to their own interpretation. In other words, their opinion will always be biased. They will either interpret the information as positive or negative for the company. A few months ago Barrons wrote a critical article about CSCO. I believe the article created a drop in the price of the stock, but if the editors at Barrons or if any particular tech analyst had a real line to the truth, we would all be rich fisherman floating about in warm seas. In the end, I am responsible for my own investment decisions, and it may take a great deal of effort on my part to make a decision that feels right. JMOP Mephisto