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Strategies & Market Trends : Piffer OT - And Other Assorted Nuts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (58125)	11/1/2000 9:44:50 AM
From: The Phoenix	Respond to of 63513

Just desserts IMO..

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (58125)	11/1/2000 12:57:37 PM
From: Don Pueblo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 63513

An interesting sidelight: DLJ just started a new ad on CNBC. It's a phone "Q&A" between a DLJ broker and what appears to be a potential client. The first question that the DLJ employee is asked is, "How much can you lose if you short a stock?" Answer: "There's no limit!" I find this extremely amusing. This is the one fact that many people will come away with if they see this ad. Most ordinary investors don't short stocks...and if they don't know what it is or how to do it, they now have a really good reason for not doing it and never learning about it. It's true, of course, that the risk on a short trade is unlimited. But I don't think that's why DLJ put that fact in their ad. I think they did it to discourage people from shorting stocks. The DLJ ad does not mention that a broker (passed "the rigorous Series 7 exam") is the only person legally allowed by the SEC to answer such questions from investors in the scenario depicted in the ad! <G> Which brings up the question, "If DLJ wants to discourage their clients, and everyone else that sees the ad, from shorting stocks, who is shorting stocks?"