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

To: ild who wrote (124200)	9/20/2001 11:41:34 AM
From: pater tenebrarum	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

yes, of course...the put sellers are forced to do that now, lest they be carried out of the exchange feet first.

To: ild who wrote (124200)	9/20/2001 1:48:05 PM
From: ild	Respond to of 436258

Reality Test Don't Blow the Next Bubble By Ben Stein Special to TheStreet.com 09/20/2001 12:53 PM EDT URL: thestreet.com Like everyone else, I feel not just sick, but depressed and enraged by what the terrorists did in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. But just for a moment, let's try to look past this horror to a lighter subject that once entranced us before we entered this seemingly endless tunnel from which we'll surely emerge. It's something we used to consider big news -- and still do, if we've read our portfolio valuations lately: It was that bubble that sucked us all in. Here are hints to help you figure out whether we're in a bubble the next time around: People who once knew better say earnings don't matter. And you listen without laughing. People who used to lube your car tell you that free-cash flow is all that matters. And you don't walk away. The person who serves lunch at your favorite restaurant has made more money this year than you have -- and did it all on stocks you never heard of on margin. And you're jealous. Mutual funds advertise year-on-year investment gains of more than 20%. And you read the fine print and write down the 800 number. Mutual funds start to advertise during the Super Bowl. Companies you never heard of have outbid Johnson & Johnson to advertise on the TV show ER and buy the halftime show at the Super Bowl. Two-million-dollar yachts have to be back-ordered with a two-year waiting period. Gulfstream jets are owned by people too young to remember the Nifty Fifty. People with $200 haircuts on CNBC tell you that EBITDA matters more than profits. Investors laugh at bond funds. You sell yours to buy tech funds you'd never heard of until yesterday. The words "new paradigm" are used more than the words "bottom line." College kids start companies that don't do anything profitable and become rich enough to buy baseball teams. You try to figure out what kind of company you can start. The technology of the moment is too complicated to be explained even in Scientific American. You feel sick with envy when you open the stock pages. You buy more tech funds. You start to seriously consider buying penny stocks. The gardener who mows your lawn shows up in a Porsche Boxster because he got a stock tip. You start to seriously consider listening to stock tips from your gardener. Your palms start to sweat when you turn your computer on to check your penny-stock prices. It's really a bubble when you become convinced that it's not a bubble. That's the end of the bubble. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Benjamin J. Stein has been a trial lawyer, a White House speechwriter for former Presidents Nixon and Ford and a campaign speechwriter for Reagan. He has been a columnist for The Wall Street Journal and written for publications including Barron's, New York magazine and Los Angeles magazine. He is a novelist, a nonfiction book writer and a screenwriter, and he has been an expert witness on financial fraud. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. At time of publication, Stein had no positions in the stocks mentioned in this column, although positions can change at any time. While Stein cannot provide investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send your feedback to Ben Stein. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------