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To: Todd N. Weisrock who wrote (2398)	4/1/1998 9:45:00 AM
From: David	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3506

Perception v. earnings . . . . Obviously, day traders work in a perception environment, full of rumors, press releases and technical analysis. I am not in that world, nor do I want to be. It is too random. Long term investors rely on fundamentals and earnings over time. There is a connection between perception and earnings, though. The range of perception has to be limited by the reality of earnings and revenues. For example, while you could easily say that a BB stock like, oh, I don't know, say FTRK, could be a scam since there is no reporting -- although there may be lots of TA and press releases and SI hype -- no one believes that General Electric is a scam, or that it has any chance of going down the tubes in any foreseeable future. Even though GE may have a couple of bad press releases and FTRK is full of good press releases, no one confuses the two situations. And the market capitalizations reflect the earnings and revenues of the two entities. If you are in the market for a quick buck, and trading, by all means buy and sell on rumors and perceptions. If you are investing, blow that off and watch earnings and fundamentals.

To: Todd N. Weisrock who wrote (2398)	4/1/1998 12:17:00 PM
From: David	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3506

More on perceptions v. earnings . . . Of course, considering the credibility of the person promoting FTRK all over SI, you wouldn't expect very many people with at least a high school education from investing in that particular stock. Actually, this is a fairly good example of what I mean. Spamming messages all over SI on behalf of a BB stock is a blatant attempt to affect perception, even though there is no way an investor can get impartial, audited information on such a stock. It demonstrates the flaw in the perception theory: People try to manipulate perceptions for their own gains, and proves the need for a Buyer Beware attitude.