The Guys and Gals of the street are picking the pockets of American investors and putting us all at risk. No different the S&L story.
This shows clearly what the Street always Knows.....!
Investors hold losers, survey says
Portfolios show stubborn belief in worst shares
By Thom Calandra, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 10:27 AM ET July 23, 2002
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) - The biggest technology losers are among the top holdings among CBS MarketWatch portfolio users, a new survey shows.
Battered shares of Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Intel Corp., Lucent Technologies and AOL Time Warner are the most popular stocks for individuals who use CBS MarketWatch portfolios to track their holdings. A year ago, when both stocks were far higher in price, Cisco (CSCO: news, chart, profile) and Microsoft (MSFT: news, chart, profile) also held the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively.
The findings indicate Main Street investors are holding onto their failing technology shares even as the stock market suffers a third year of deep losses. The willingness of individuals to go down with their losers - or sit frozen as their taxable and retirement accounts suffer heavy losses -- is seen as a sign the stock market has waves of frantic selling still ahead.
In this new portfolio survey, shares of media company AOL Time Warner moved to the No. 5 spot from No. 3. AOL (AOL: news, chart, profile) shares have lost 75 percent of their value in the past 12 months. In the top 10, only one company lost marquee status from a year ago: AT&T (T: news, chart, profile), whose shares are down by more than half since July 2001.
AOL wasn't the only 75 percent loser that portfolio users stubbornly kept registered in their online tracking system. Portfolio users also stuck with Sun Microsystems (SUNW: news, chart, profile), the computer server company whose shares have lost three-quarters of their value since July 2001. Sun was No. 10 on the list compared with No. 9 a year ago. See the July 2001 survey.
Portfolio users, who may or may not actually own the shares they are tracking online, boosted shares of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ: news, chart, profile) into the top 10 for the first time. The computer company this year generated worldwide publicity in its winning proxy battle to merge with Compaq Computer.
For the most part, the behavior of online investors resembles the activity of those whose most popular holdings are catalogued by brokerages such as Merrill Lynch. Account holders at Merrill Lynch are sticking with their losers. Every stock among the top 20 in Merrill Lynch's most widely held list is down sharply since Jan. 2, and down sharply from a year ago. Wal-Mart shares (WMT: news, chart, profile), which are also in the CBS MarketWatch top 20, have fared best with a mere 18 percent loss in the past 12 months.
Absent from the top CBS MarketWatch portfolio holdings were gold mining shares. The miners have posted steady gains for investors in the past 12 months as the price of bullion surpassed $300 an ounce. See the CBS MarketWatch portfolio tool.
Professional market watchers often trawl the behavior of individual investors for anecdotal signs of acceptance or rejection of stocks. Most Americans are suffering 40 percent and greater portfolio losses in 28 months of a declining stock market. Those with technology stocks are suffering the worst losses.
A look at these portfolio results is further evidence most Americans are frozen in the headlights of the continuing bear market. Their inaction almost surely will lead to grave losses in a market where there are few potential buyers at current prices and tens of millions of potential sellers.
The Top 20
Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, Lucent Technologies, AOL Time Warner, General Electric, Dell Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, IBM, AT&T, Pfizer, WorldCom, EMC, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Yahoo, JDS Uniphase, Walt Disney.
The top 20 from July 2001
Cisco Systems, Microsoft, AOL Time Warner, Intel, Lucent, Dell, Oracle, AT&T, Sun Microsystems, General Electric, IBM, WorldCom, Yahoo, Pfizer, Compaq, EMC, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, JDS Uniphase, Qualcomm,
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