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

To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (6631)	9/5/1998 9:24:00 PM
From: Russ Motter	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 8002

Skeeter~Barron's also has a piece out today with comments by William Fleckenstein. "Fact is, I don't see why Gateway should even exist." 1. Country Store concept big misuse of corp. cash. 2. Big screen TV/PC a flop. 3. Moving headquarters to So. Cal. too costly. 4. Ted Waitt selling his stock after positive comments on earnings. His advice; "take 5% and comeback in 15 months, your not going to miss much" (in the tech market).~Russ

To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (6631)	9/5/1998 9:43:00 PM
From: Kory	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 8002

Who once said that there are lies, damn lies, and then statistics? 1) The DOW started the decade near 3000. When it peaked at 9300, the average investor had over a triple, or a 200% total return. Now it is back to 7500. The average investor is still up about 150% in 8 years, which equates to a better than 12% annual return. Please note that you said 43% of PROFITS, not investment dollars. 2) I find it hard to imagine where Barron's is getting their data about the so called "average investor". Most average buy and hold types are invested in index funds. The DOW is down 20% from its all time high. The S&P 500 a little more. If I invested $10,000 in index funds back in 1990, it was worth over $30,000 earlier this year when the market peaked. The 20% slip in the market has then caused that investor to lose $6,000, or 30%, of his previous appreciation of $20,000. The 43% seems suspicious - probably using a small cap index or something. In any event it is still PROFITS, not investment. If I assume a 43% drop in profits, or $8600, I am still left with a $11,400 gain over 8 years which is still 10% annual growth. 3) Long term investors have not "lost" anything any more than they "gained" over the previous 7 years. Last time I checked, I still own the same shares of stock I owned before the market dropped and I have the same rights to the profits of the businesses that I own. The market could continue to go down or go up, frankly I don't care for the next 20+ years. The only time that I want the market to be high is when I am about to sell which is somewhere around 2020 when I hope to retire. In the interim, I am happy to see it go down as the "new" money I am investing buys more. 4) As for the long term buy and hold being foolish - I'm sure the Motley Fools would agree. If you are trying to be critical of the method, please call Warren Buffet, Peter Lynch, and others, and explain to them how silly they were, and still are, to not follow the skeeter bug method of investing. Kory