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To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (10912)	1/26/1998 2:00:00 PM
From: Andrew Vance	Respond to of 17305

AV -- The unmentionable investment seems to be creating a pattern of 1/4 pt a day (3 days in a row). At this rate, prior to the first release of news after the quiet period, we should be at $15 by Feb 20th<GGG>. IOM is doing a great deal of nothing on large volumes of trades. Down considerably in volume relative to Friday but definitely still going real strong relative to average daily volume. Question of the day: Why is VESC down 61% on announcing the acquisition of two companies? Sure one of them is a turnaround company that had some losses which might impact they company for 6-9 months (or 3 qtrs of earnings) but 61% is just a little overdone. I think some shrewd MMs took the institution(s) to the cleaners. Also, ADCT takes it on the chin today for being somewhat hinest about their Asian exposure for the next few quarters. Last look had them licking a 30%+ reduction in price today. PLAB is looking very healthy from the few conversations I have had with analysts, employees and customers. So far, all I can find out is that they have a Taiwan and Singapore operation of which the Taiwan operation is doing some good to great business. Still looking for Korean exposure but it does not look as bad as DPMI's Korean Exposure. On the subject of Korean Exposure, it looks as if Hyundai is having some problems (unsubstantiated) fitting up Fab 7 in Korea due to letters of credit issues with equipment suppliers. Consider this just in the rumor stage but be careful with anything associated with this company relative to equipment news releases from the equipment suppliers. They might not be as rock solid as we may be led to believe. Also, QCOM got some great expoisure with the SuperBowl Yesterday (San Diego Qualcomm Stadium) which one would think might help the stock price. It might do that but it might be short lived. Korean and Asian exposure issues could upset their wireless communications applecart for the next few quarters. Things might (keyword might) be slowing down and some infrastructure projects might be in the process of going on hold. Keep asking all the tough questions on a real time basis to keep a real time handle on what is happening with them. PRDM has signed a new agreement with IOM to supply two types of SRAMs for the Zip Drives. PRDM is a very flakey company and investing here is like playing the Wheel of Fortune in Vegas. You never know which way to place your bet so you wind up watching others play the game. I am too scared to play in PRDM after the huge run up then dramatic crash and burn it took. More volatility than I care to be involved in. IMES is starting to back off into the low 0.40s again and make be near a very good (but risky) entry point. Remember, I have aposition here and had talked about it when it was up in the 0.50s but mentioned my entry point. Now that we are almost back to parity with my entry point, we are all on the same even playing field. ALYD - I am waiting with baited breath Jeff. I agree that it has been way too quiet on the news side. However, that does not necessarily mean some is coming down the road. As the contracts mount up it is critical to see how revenues filter down to the bottom line in the form of real tangible earnings. NVLS - I would really like some good TA on these guys, if possible. It looks fundamentally sound and solid, poised for good price performance when the sector turns favorable again. As a matter of fact, the 5 lead sled dogs, IMO, should be AMAT, KLAC, NVLS, ASYT, PLAB for the next decent rally. When they come back to the techs, I think this is where the first wave might be. I have intentionally left out the backend equipment and the CMP equipment due to market uncertainty and the Asian crisis. This means that KLIC, TER, SFAM, and IPEC have been intentionally not considered. Disk Drive Sector is still weak with momentary false indications that it will recover in the short term. Prices for the high end drives keep dropping. I am seeing massive dumping of lower end drives in the inventory supply chain using some nifty marketing tactics. For instance: 1) CompUSA is selling a limited number of 5.1 Gig drives for the same price as 4.0 Gig drives since the WD 5.1 Gig drives were accidentally put into the 4.0 boxes. 2) The WD 2.5 Gig drives not only have a rebate of $30 but at Best Buy, you get up to $50 off any software title. They even honored the software title gimmick on the 3.1 and 4.0 Gig drives. I know because I bough one of each. Actually all the WD drives have the $30 rebate it seems. 3)WD also has a trade in rebate (hardly worth doing) for the older drive you are replacing. A token $10-$50, depending on the capacity of the drive. Nothing for those drives under 500 Meg. 4)Maxtor has had the no name, brown box, no instruction hard drives selling right next to the branded boxes for almost 1 full product generation difference in price. Get a larger Gig unbranded box for the same price as the branded box one capacity level lower. 5)QNTM is starting to increas its shelf space in certain stores and they are being heavily discounted. Memory- I just picked up 2 - 32 Meg SIMM modules for $69.99 with a $20 rebate coupon making this the absolute cheapest 64 Meg memory upgrade I have ever done, almost half. My system now has 128 Meg on board. Why?? Beats me. Possibly because there were 4 slots to fill and only 2 were filled. I still have a DIMM slot but it requires losing the 2 SIMM modules and paying an exorbitant price. Taiwan foundries are still looking relatively healthy which should mean companies like ADPT, who use services over there, are not feling much pain yet. Taiwan Manufacturing may be our best bellwether for the corporate health of some US companies in the same circumstances as ADPT. WFR reports earnings after the close today and has its conference call early tomorrow morning. BYDS - as of this writing it is up 1/4 from 1.5 but I did not get back in full force with trading shares. I have a relatively small trading position. MOYC is now net even on this round of investment relative to initial entry. The overall position is positive due to averaging down. This position is going to be liquidated and flipped to NANX. AV