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

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (218206)	2/1/2003 4:20:33 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Barron's Mini Review: This is the mutual fund family rating issue, and a must read. 1. Abelson was hot as a pistol this week. He thanks the Busheviks are trying to constrain boosting the economy too much until election year. And he doesn't think that the American auto will respond when Flubya steps on the accelerator. Fiscal policy will have no more effect than Greenscam's "serial slashing" of interest rates. That man can turn a phrase and to quote another group of turners, this parrot is dead. The problem is the speculation and the losses after that craziness, according to AA. He doesn't mention the debt spiral throughout the economy, but would probably say it all came from the stock market shenanigans. He quotes a Blodgett piece on overpriced internet stocks from 1999: "the real 'risk' is not losing money, but missing the upside." Long and wrong. It is so funny to hear this silly advice. Since I've been working where I'm working, I've heard that my clients will hate me if the train leaves the station and they're not aboard. So far, this hearkens back to the recent exchange on a venerable thread between a couple of regular posters about "driving that train, high on cocaine. Switchman's sleeping, train one hundred and two, is on the wrong track and heading for you." Somehow, I trust The Grateful Dead more than the Wall Street braintrust. <g> Abelson mentions that the soft spot is now 10 months old. Hey, most babies have a soft spot on their head when they are born. But if they still have it when they're 21 years old, they ought to see a doctor. Get my drift George and Barbara Bush? <G> 2. A follow-up article about Drugs and PBMs. I love the latter and like the former. I couldn't quite figure out if they were positive or negative. Perhaps they are being fair and balanced. I hate that kind of crap. <g> Tout my stocks, damn it! 3. A very positive piece on big oil. The stocks have sucked. Hey, folks, these guys own The White House and when we use our military to help big oil, they rarely come out looking bad. 4. The mutual fund story was terrific. They tout the one year numbers, but I rarely pay much attention to them. The one year winner was State Farm Management. A couple of years back, it was Colonial Management. Neither of these firms are really in the game longer term. So, look at the 5 and 10 year numbers. I always look for firms I've worked for or with. For some reason, Van Kampen seems to have pissadeared from the ratings. Perhaps they are being combined with Morgan Stuck-Up. Too bad in a year when Jim Gilligan's Equity Income Fund outperformed his peer group for the 13th year in a row. I don't know how the other funds did. Waddell & Reed dropped out of the Top Ten for five years, finishing a respectable #20 out of 72. For 10 years, they are #10 out of 24. Both of those numbers are declines from their usual sterling performance. Hank Hermann is a brilliant guy and he runs the joint. But Hank wuvs his tech stocks. Dancing with the stocks that brung them have not killed performance, but they have hurt it. Salomon Bros ranked #9 or 72 for 5 years, which is pretty good. Smith Barney ranked #38. For 10 years, Sally is AWOL while Smith Barney ranks 16 of 24. Not so good. The 3 best fund groups for 5 years weren't mentioned on the list for 10. American Funds was #4 of 72 for the nickel and #1 for the dime. These guys ain't my cup of tea a lot of the time, but they are sure a lot smarter than their competition. 4. An interview with Bill Miller of Legg Mason. Every time I read what this guy says, he sounds like a mongoloid idiot. But his record says otherwise. I will always take real long-term performance over words. But the doofishness of the words cause me heartburn. 5. Market Watch has some nice word bites from newsletters. The best was The Financial Commentator, who asks what would happen if Iraq was resolved and the economy didn't recover. 6. A bullish piece in the Commodities section on Natural Gas. Worth the $3.50. The danged clerk caught the price tag this time and I had to pay for it instead of having it shoved inside my grocery bag as a freebie. The world sucks. <VBG>

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (218206)	2/2/2003 12:10:34 AM
From: ForYourEyesOnly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Tokyo Mex: Perhaps he's in jail? businessweek.com Is It Sayonara for Web Stock-Picker ``Tokyo Joe''? The SEC says the influential day trader used his site as a front for various illegal activities After months of fretting about the subculture of investment chat rooms, the Securities & Exchange Commission on Jan. 5 sued one of the Web's best-known stock-picking gurus, "Tokyo Joe." The SEC is asking a federal judge in Chicago to shut down "Tokyo Joe's" Societe Anonyme, a Web- and e-mail stock-alert network run by Yun Soo Oh Park of New York. The securities cops say Park defrauded his subscribers and misrepresented his own performance as a day trader. Park's attorney says he will fight the charges. Park took on the noms de Web "Tokyo Mex" and "Tokyo Joe" in 1997, when he was one of the most active stock-tip posters on such investment bulletin boards as Silicon Investor and Raging Bull. Stories in the press featured him as a spokesman and symbol of the Net's adrenaline-charged world of rumor-driven chat rooms, day trading, and stock tips. By mid-1998, Park had set up his own Web site, TokyoJoe's, and launched Societe Anonyme. Last September, Time magazine's Time Digital online edition cited him as "one of the country's most influential stock-pickers." "SCALPING." Although he hiked his membership fees from $29 to $200 a month, Park eventually enrolled 3,800 subscribers, according to the SEC. From July, 1998, through June, 1999, the SEC says, Park collected $1.1 million in fees for e-mailed stock picks and access to his members-only Web pages and chat rooms. One mark of Park's influence: Web sites where he didn't post his picks set up windows where their subscribers could follow the TokyoJoe chat on Silicon Investor. But Societe Anonyme was the front for a "fraudulent scheme," the SEC charges. In at least 10 instances, the agency lawsuit alleges, "Park purchased shares of a stock shortly before his recommendation to buy those shares and subsequently sold those shares for a quick profit at the same time he was recommending that Societe Anonyme members and others buy the stock." That practice is known as "scalping." Park didn't reveal his holdings in the stocks he recommended, the SEC says. The alleged scheme depended on the sharp spikes in trading volume that would follow a TokyoJoe recommendation. The SEC cites the case of Videonics Inc., which Park recommended last Feb. 17, after he allegedly bought 11,100 shares. That day, 272,500 Videonics shares traded hands, up 7,109% from the average daily volume the week before, and the price spiked from 78 cents to $2. The SEC charges that Park started selling his Videonics shares five minutes after he e-mailed his recommendation. He closed out his position on Feb. 18. EMBELLISHED RECORD? The suit also charges Park with illegally touting the stock of DCGR International Holdings Inc., an importer of handmade cigars. In July, 1998, Park recommended the stock to his subscribers and to participants in other Internet stock chat rooms. But on July 21, the suit charges, Park received 100,000 shares of DCGR from "an agent or representative of DCGR at the request of DCGR." He sold the shares "profitably" the same day, the SEC alleges. The third charge: Park's Web site did not accurately portray his performance as a day trader. The trading record posted on the site included 800 "false or misleading" share prices, excluded at least 40 trades in which Park lost up to 90%, and listed results of 56 hypothetical trades -- cases where Park recommended a stock but didn't trade it, the complaint alleges. An SEC official says Park netted "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in trading profits from stocks that he scalped or touted. The suit seeks a permanent injunction, disgorgement of illegal-trading profits, and unspecified civil penalties. Park's Web site made no mention of the SEC charges. Park "intends to defend against the action," according to his attorney, Ira Sorkin. "We would have hoped that the SEC would deal with cyberspace, Internet chat rooms, day trading, and free-speech issues through regulation, not litigation," says Sorkin. "There are a lot of murky issues," he says, regarding "free speech and free exchange of information" for chat-room tipsters and investors.