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To: Jill who wrote (4370)	11/12/2000 2:00:11 AM
From: Michael Watkins	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 8925

I wonder why, maybe fear is stronger than greed? Must be. Well I personally think that people buy when they shouldn't because of greed and learned behaviour; why they don't short? Could be fear. Could be that learned behaviour. Some feel its some how unnatural or dirty. Some don't take the time to learn about it, although not like there's a lot to learn. I think emotion has a lot to do with people's reluctance to short. Or sell for that matter. For an investor that is long and putting emotional energy into 'hoping' their stocks go up; being excited and energized when they do go up - it might be hard for such a person to think bidirectionally and be equally comfortable with shorting. A question of balance? I remember lack of balance in my own trading and technical analysis work. When I grew disillusioned with the fundamental approach, I turned to technical analysis as a means to finding some secret order to things. Early on, and without a structured methodology, it was easy to 'bend' my analysis to fit my subjective mind set at the time. I suspect I'm not the only one that has ever thought that way about their holdings. Money is such a powerful mover of emotion. Good luck with the class!