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Technology Stocks : Novell (NOVL) dirt cheap, good buy? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (20824)	3/8/1998 12:39:00 PM
From: Jack Whitley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

<<As you may have noticed, you cannot smoke in an American movie theater. Know why?>> I'll take a stab at it - so people will not get crushed running for the exits if someone yells "fire". I still think, regarding 401-ks, if there is a correction or crash, and people have this money in managed mutual funds through their 401-k administrator, I don't think they will all bail at once. I think more people (not all, but more) realize that if prices shrink 30%, 40%, they start getting more shares with each bi-weekly deduction, and since this is long-term money that is invested in quality companies, they will ultimately benefit (how their particular plan's mutual funds manage a panic is another story). Everyone has an opinion here, we'll just have to see how it plays out. I continue to read your Asian posts with great interest. I also saw an article in our local paper yesterday regarding Japan's raid on the Ministry of Finance. I can see the seriousness of the Asian crisis, but I personally don't see it taking us down in a catastrophic way (though you have very clearly showed us how this could happen). With regard our economy and the market, I am more concerned with the Y2K problem and how it might depress every sector of our economy. Even if a few large concerns are successful in their remediation projects, we are increasingly relying on internal data processing and a large, nationwide network to conduct our business. Will this network be compliant by 2000 (including all legacy hardware with embedded chip logic including 2 digit field) ? If this network bogs down, talk about a cascading effect. If anything would make me allocate more toward cash for the short term, this would be it. As far as the Jesse Livermore example that I have seen used here (not by you) regarding buying back in, if you buy quality companies "on the way down" and don't use margin, leverage, or the rent money, history has shown that you will come out a winner. When people let time be their friend and think quality, they will be OK long term. IF a mass of people does not understand this, I'm not sure whose fault it is, but I don't think it is the fault of people who "hype the market". You have to have been cut off from civilization for the last two years to not have constantly heard that "the market is really high, due for a correction, "irrational exhuberance", etc, so I have no sympathy for anyone, including myself, who stays in and gets burned. jww