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Technology Stocks : Gateway (GTW) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: H James Morris who wrote (6397)	8/6/1998 5:52:00 PM
From: Kory	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 8002

Gateway has over 150 million shares outstanding. Short interest in July was 13 million shares. This is actually high as compared to most S&P 500 stocks, but still represents only a little more than 8% of the total stock outstanding. Granted, these "short shares" are apt to be traded more frequently than many of the long term shares owned by institutions, management, me, etc., but it hardly explains every move in a stocks performance. My point was that every message board I read on SI seems to take the position that shorts are the sole reason for a stock making a move up or down. There is absolutely no evidence to back this up, but I guess it beats assuming that fellow longs are dumping the stock, or that people disagree with your negative prospects of the stock. I don't know why Gateway moved today, other than the demand for shares apparently was greater than the supply, and I find it hard to believe that anyone here knows much more than that (unless of course you created millions of shares of demand). The "reality" is that the majority of stocks are still bought and sold in a traditional "buy now, sell later" transaction. Short selling and covering may explain a portion of stock movement, but it is hardly the holy grail that everyone paints it to be. Kory