Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (80677)	3/14/2001 11:06:57 PM
From: Box-By-The-Riviera™	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

very interesting! great! hope they do.

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (80677)	3/14/2001 11:09:42 PM
From: yard_man	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Why would you be surprised if they publish it -- they'll edit, but there's no reason for them not to

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (80677)	3/15/2001 7:42:22 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 436258

You made it, Haim. Tippet, too. >>Some Diehard Investors Are Finally Losing Hope By AARON ELSTEIN WSJ.COM Count Haim Branisteanu among the capitulated. This [edited out the name of his home town for the sake of privacy] stopped investing in technology stocks two years ago, losing money along the way, and started buying such blue-chip stocks as DuPont Co. and Johnson & Johnson last year. He sold those late last year because they "went nowhere." "I really don't know what the future is," says Mr. Branisteanu. "But the stock market is not where I want to be." Although he's now out of the stock market altogether, he couldn't resist the chance on Wednesday, the day Dow Jones Industrial Average closed below the much-vaunted 10000 mark for the first time since October, to take a few shots at Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. "When AG will resign, then markets will rally," said Mr. Branisteanu in a Silicon Investor message. But the idea that Mr. Greenspan can rescue the stock market is becoming outmoded among online investors. Even if the Fed cuts interest rates next week, which is widely expected, investors no longer expect that to trigger a market rebound. "I know I'll be pooh-poohed for this, but I think we are already past the point of no return," wrote a person named "tippet" on Silicon Investor. "I don't think AG can inspire anything now, whatever he does." Such thinking suggests a sea change in investor attitudes. The long-running bull market had conditioned many people to think that stocks are invariably the best investment. And they held as an article of faith that the Fed would adjust interest rates nimbly enough to stem an economic recession and a prolonged market downturn. But now that the Nasdaq Composite Index has dropped 60% from its high last year and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index has shed more than 20%, individual investors are questioning all those tenets these days. And the Dow industrials' return to sub-10000 terrain is adding to the anxiety. "This is March 2000 for the Dow," wrote an investors using the pseudonym "ibuythenusell" on a Yahoo! message board, referring to when the Nasdaq peaked. "The question for investors is whether the recent Dow weakness will represent a rotation of assets out of blue chips and into the beaten up Nasdaq or whether the Dow is simply the final index to get the wrecking ball in an ongoing process of aggressive selling." Some posters were holding out hope that somehow, enough investors would "capitulate" so the market could rally again. "I just wish the nervous Nellies in the market would get out NOW," wrote one person on Yahoo. "Allow the market to take its lumps and then allow it to go about its routine business." But some investors say it's time to recognize that the bull market is a thing of the past. Sean Thomas, a New York investor who says he lost "heavily" investing in tech stocks last year, says it's time investors forget about double-digit return in stocks and start demanding such old-fashioned things as dividend payments. On Wednesday, Mr. Thomas posted a message on Silicon Investor, a popular stock-chat site, calling for Cisco Systems to start paying dividends. Investors haven't expected dividend payments from technology companies, instead preferring them to reinvest their profits to build their businesses. But with Cisco's stock off 75% from its 52-week high, Mr. Thomas says it is time to start thinking differently. "Investors are shying away from Cisco stock because management is telling them they can't foresee when things are going to turn around," he said in a telephone interview. "A dividend would at least partially compensate investors for taking the risk." Kirk Stalter, an investor who works at a Columbus, Ohio financial-services company, says he is trying to keep faith in stocks. He considers himself a long-term investor and says he still think the best opportunities over time are in tech stocks. But he no longer picks stocks by himself and has started putting his money in mutual funds, such as the Red Oak Technology Select Fund. "That's my form of diversifying," he says. "Let an expert decide what stocks I should own." Keith Greenwald, an investor in Charlotte, N.C., says he dabbled in the market early Wednesday, making bids for shares in Sun Microsystems Inc. and Extreme Networks Inc. But when he couldn't get the stocks at the prices he wanted, he decided to take a pause from the market and tend to his other business -- selling ice cream. "I spent most of the day at an amusement park training people how to sell ice-cream novelties," he says. "It's a much better thing to do than beat yourself up by looking at the market all day long."<< interactive.wsj.com