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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: H James Morris who wrote (4872)	5/30/1998 10:53:00 PM
From: Mark Myword	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

>> Amazon.com, a Seattle seller of books online, popped $2.188 to $88.125. Jeff Vinik, a well-known investment manager, has been adding shares to his portfolio<< H. James - this is indeed interesting , as Vinik is also very well known as a big stock shorter and player of overvalued stocks. He may very likely be building a boxed position in Amazon , which is what I would do if I were he. Basically , it works like this: He buys lots of shares in a cash account and simultaneously takes a short position in a different account for the same number of shares at the same price. The two positions offset each other and he has no risk , up or down. At the proper time he and others begin to dump their long stock en masse , and it plummets. This leaves him net short a bunch as stock as the price drops like a rock , then when it hits a target bottom , he covers the short and makes a killing. It would be wonderful if we could know his true overall position ! The beauty of the above strategy is that as the stock craters , you don't need an uptick , because you have long shares to dump; you're in control. And those same shares are in a cash account , which means they aren't available to lend out for others to borrow & short. I can't imagine a savvy , experienced guy like Vinik actually thinking of Amazon as an "investment" , can you ? He's got to be way smarter than that ! The week after the split should be very interesting , indeed.