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Technology Stocks : Y2K (Year 2000) Stocks: An Investment Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: airborn who wrote (11382)	5/5/1998 12:06:00 PM
From: PerkyT	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 13949

*To All - Anyone know the name of firewall software company that has developed a software to protect a Y2K compliant company system from receiving corrupted information. I'm sure I read about such a software, but can't remember the name of the company!* Thank You. Tom Perkins

To: airborn who wrote (11382)	5/5/1998 10:28:00 PM
From: William H. Ferguson	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 13949

36 years ago, during maybe my first trip to Las Vegas, attending a work-related seminar, I walked into the " Dunes." I was absolutely fascinated, being something of a Puritan when it came to such worldly devices as gambling. I happened to be standing next to the Cashier's window. A well-dressed man walked up to the window and asked for $1000 worth of $100 chips. ( I had never had that much spending money in my life.) He stepped about ten paces away to the nearest Blackjack table and put all the chips down. He played one hand, drew 21 on the first two cards, said to the dealer, "It was nice doing business with you," walked back to the Cashier's window, cashed in his now doubled chips, and left the casino. My mandible moved, unconsciously, downward about two inches. Now I think that such gambling action happens every day in Vegas and in the market. If the gambler or the investor scores big and fast, it surely is a thrill and very gratifying. Not on the same scale nor in the same league as building a nice mechanical project with one's own hands, or removing a brain tumor, or playing a musical instrument really competently, or creating a really beautiful painting or piece of poetry, or teaching someone to read, and so on, but still, rewarding. I posit, tho', that most of us are sort of average. Our chances of creating some additional wealth for ourselves and our families shouldn't depend on one throw of the dice. It's something we build piecemeal; a little at a time, and involving for most of us, a period of time encompassing many, many years. Conclusion: If one invests 50%, 70%, 80% or 100% of his investment capital in one common stock, or one type of common stock, he's gambling. I have already admitted that I know there are a few winners who practice this approach, and, who are successful. From my point of view, out of every 1000 investors who take this approach, the heavy majority are going to lose. Presumably, any investment in any stock, since all such investments to my knowledge involve risk, is a gamble. The idea is to control risk as best one understands it and as best one can. Diversification offers one solution. With malice toward none, and best of luck toward all. William