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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (22744)	8/10/1998 3:05:00 PM
From: C E D	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Katherine's posts knocked her down on my Respect-o-meter. Brian, It is a no-brainer, it is your loss. Ed

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (22744)	8/10/1998 3:27:00 PM
From: Ian@SI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Brian, Clearly, it's your choice, who, if anyone, you will read, respect, trust or whatever. IMO, saying "Since she currently has no holdings in this sector, how can she possibly comment, unless she has invested in the past? Also, the fact that she has no holdings may in fact make her biased towards the Bearish camp since she may be hoping for a collapse so she too can jump on. " misses the mark substantially. To my knowledge, Katherine has never stated that she doesn't invest, only that she doesn't invest in the sector that she is paid to write about. IMO, this is a wise and ethical choice. Further, her company is not in the investment banking or retail brokerage business. Thus, I'm more willing to trust her than Kurlak, Biggs, etc. But comparing Katherine with the CNBC "talking heads" is most unreasonable. The only thing that most of these people know about most Semi Equipment companies seems to be the 2 line profile they're able to pull off a screen. Certainly none that I have seen have shown even a basic understanding of the processes used to make a chip. Last, unless explicitly requested, Katherine tends not to offer investment opinions. I admit this is not always true. She does freely and clearly share her knowledge of the business. As there are so few people who have this knowledge and share it willingly, I do hope that she is not offended by these discussions. I believe that she provides more value to SI readers than you, I or both of us together. But you're always free to do as I do with many posters -- just skip over the posters that you find to be generally without any value added. Best wishes, Ian

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (22744)	8/10/1998 10:06:00 PM
From: Katherine Derbyshire	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 70976

>> IMO she is knowledgeable about the semiconductor industry, no doubt. What is in question is her ability to comment knowledgeably about the stocks in question. There is a difference in a company and it's stock. Since she currently has no holdings in this sector, how can she possibly comment, unless she has invested in the past? Also, the fact that she has no holdings may in fact make her biased towards the Bearish camp since she may be hoping for a collapse so she too can jump on. << For the record: I do not invest in semiconductor equipment stocks. I have no intention of investing in semiconductor equipment stocks, no matter what the market does. First, such investments would be ethically problematic, and second, I don't want to put my investment eggs in the same basket as my salary eggs. And third, the sector is way too volatile for my financial goals. Yes, I am biased towards the bearish camp, because I think the industry and macroeconomic fundamentals point in that direction. But from the point of view of my personal holdings, I couldn't care less what AMAT's stock does. My motives? Well, I like a good argument as much as the next person, and I learn a lot about what's going on in the industry. The collective filtering of the SI population screens out the good stuff better than any software I've seen. And yeah, I would like for more people to come visit Semiconductor Online, and being visible here is one of the most informative and enjoyable ways I can think of to encourage that. Plus, I spend A LOT of time online, so spending even a tiny fraction of that time here adds up to a lot of time spent here, and it's not as much fun to lurk. As far as my qualifications versus CNBC, my bio is on the VerticalNet site, verticalnet.com. I'll let you judge for yourself. Katherine PS Brian, you're right, my criticism of your Lehman post was out of line. There was no need to direct my disagreement with the forecast at you personally. I'm sorry.