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To: Todd D. Wiener who wrote (564)	12/9/1997 4:54:00 AM
From: Jeff Bond	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 886

Todd, Excellent! I consider the willingness to share in detail your screening methods and criteria, then list a website where this can be done very generous. I appreciate what you provided, it is something I am going to chisel in stone. For comparison, after 4 months of investing, I had developed the following list of criteria to use in the Investment Finder at Microsoft Investor's website. 1. Market Capitalization < $400M 2. Debt/equity ratio as low as possible 3. Price/sales ratio as low as possible 4. Past 1 year sales growth as high as possible 5. Past 5 year earnings growth as high as possible 6. Net profit margin as high as possible 7. Institutional ownership % less than 25% 8. ROE as high as possible This is how I originally found SMTC as a potential investment opportunity. The results did have some flaws, especially the debt/equity and market capitalization criteria which allowed a lot of tiny, debt-free companies to sneak into the list. Also, the ROE criteria also gave false readings for some companies with incredibly small amounts of equity. I think this may mean one thing : Goodbye MS Investor :o) Regards, JB

To: Todd D. Wiener who wrote (564)	12/9/1997 9:56:00 AM
From: Sword	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 886

Todd: Many thanks for sharing your basic screening method. I will use it and variations of it in the future. The final criteria is that of expectations for the future quarters that can't be quantified in screening programs. These might include expected new and compelling products, etc. I know that you also search for these but that this requires lots of research in trade magazines, phone calls to the company and the like. That must be how you found BTIM since it certainly doesn't meet any of the screening criteria. Regards, Jerry P.S. Thanks also to JB.

To: Todd D. Wiener who wrote (564)	12/9/1997 9:44:00 PM
From: John F. Poteraske	Respond to of 886

Todd-Been using hoover's site for a while(nice free site). Also use the research mag. site that you had listed before. I also wanted to add that the book also has other items to consider when finding a small cap pick. 1. Make sure margins remain at consistent levels if they're not actually rising. 2. Make sure r&d expenditures aren't getting shortchanged 3. Make sure company is paying full income taxes 4. Keep an eye on growth in shares 5. Cash levels 6. Avoid Debt(says no debt-but I like your figure of .10) 7. Make sure growth in a/c and inventory approximates sales growth BTW the capitalization that they look for 50-500 million. I wanted to follow up on your comment regarding $20 maximum share price. I agree that a maximum is not necessary. Also wanted to share the book's comment in more detail which says that the requirement is also mainly in place to limit the field. Although is says were not big sticklers on this point. Do you know of any good site's that provide management % ownership interests?? Thanks JP