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Pastimes : Investment Chat Board Lawsuits -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (3624)	8/23/2002 1:02:50 PM
From: EL KABONG!!!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12465

Hi Chris, How's things going for you? Haven't chatted with you in a while now... Enron managed it I would tend to disagree with stating that Enron managed to fool ordinary investors that do good fundamental analysis. I know I was contacted several times in the late 90's by various brokers to buy Enron, which was the stock du jour during those days. I'll admit to being tempted by the steadily rising numbers and the obvious momentum of the stock. But I never bought it simply because I never understood the company's business model. An old axiom (I don't know if it's Graham or Buffett or Lynch that deserves the credit) of fundamental analysis is that you must understand the business model and the business plan. I think many people were so easily shafted by Enron, not because Enron was extremely clever and deceitful in hiding its debt (which they were), but because so many people wanted to believe the Enron story, and they were enthralled with the positive momentum in the stock price. Another Microsoft, they thought... A different, though just as accurate, way of describing the prevailing attitude might be investor greed... But what do I know? I spend about 6 or so hours a day evaluating potential investments, always from a fundamentals perspective. I've burned myself only once, and I learned from that mistake. Yes, like most everyone else, I've lost plenty of value in my tech holdings, and I still hold some of them, but I've learned from that mistake as well. That's the best that all of us individual investors can hope for, that we learn from our mistakes and the mistakes of others, and that we don't repeat history... KJC