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To: Patrick E.McDaniel who wrote (70119)	10/7/1998 10:19:00 PM
From: Ian Davidson	Respond to of 176387

DELL and @Home form alliance: news.com Ian

To: Patrick E.McDaniel who wrote (70119)	10/7/1998 11:53:00 PM
From: SecularBull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

OPTIONS PLAYERS: There's a $4 difference in price between the 70 ($16 7/8)and 90 ($12 3/4) calls in Jan 2001. My advice: buy the 70s and sell the 90s as covered calls (using the 70s as your cover). On ten contracts, you spend $16,875, but bring in $12,750. For an investment of $4,125 net (pre commission) you get $20 in spread, which would be equal to $20,000 (assuming you get called on the 90s). If it lands in the spread (which we hope it won't be less than $90 per share in 2001), you're 70s are good and the 90s don't get called. Just a thought. LoD

To: Patrick E.McDaniel who wrote (70119)	10/8/1998 8:23:00 AM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176387

I know you have lost your innocence long time ago but..how about your shirt? Naaaah...I still got mine and I know you got yours.<g> 'morning Pat: I see the board has been invaded by creatures from planet of the Fear Mongers, talk about a good sign. Here is an article that attempts to sum up the present predicament of the NASDAQ. There's more good news on the horizon, too. The Bank of England will likely cut its interest rate Thursday and Congress is expected to give the International Monetary Fund $18 billion to shore up emerging markets. Japan, finally, is about to pass a bill to mend its shaky banks and the Fed is looking to shave another quarter point off the discount rate. "You have to take the good with the bad," Collier said. "I think the biggest problem with this market right now is investors have become incredibly spoiled. The guys that tough it out and build their portfolios during this downturn will be laughing all the way to the bank by this time next year." ================================ Excerpts from ZDII Active Investor. Obviously, there's no simple answer to explain why the technology stock sector—arguably the heart and soul of international commerce—is faltering while the rest of the U.S. economy keeps charging ahead. On Wednesday, the Nasdaq closed at 1462.61, 27 percent lower than its all-time high established in July. Surface level explanations abound. First, it was all Asia's fault. Bogged down in a horrible recession, Pacific Rim countries that traditionally import the bulk of American technology products watched their currencies unravel and were slow to react. Shortly thereafter, a serious meltdown in Russia and Central America took hold. As these currencies faltered, American technology firms fired off press release after press release warning that sales and earnings in the second half of 1998 would fall short of expectations. For the most part, these warnings were premature. In fact, in the past week Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) and Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) easily topped even the most optimistic estimates in the third quarter. Analysts figured these international problems could be solved if the Federal Reserve Board stepped up and cut short-term interest rates. One week after that one-quarter point cut, technology stocks are still flailing. Then it there were major shifts in the technology itself. Sub-$1,000 personal computers became the fastest growing market in the industry overnight. Major telecommunications companies consolidated almost as quickly. And the big guns like Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) embarked on new and slower developing product lines. And of course, there's the Internet. How quickly investors forget that in April and again in July, companies such as Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), Excite Inc. (Nasdaq: XCIT) and Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) went on incredible runs, driving up the Nasdaq by leaps and bounds. Three months and one presidential scandal later, the Nasdaq and the Russell 2000, a leading index of small-cap stocks, are trading at 52-week lows. "There are fears at a high level, and people at this point don't want to believe anything positive will happen, a reverse of six months ago," said Alfred Kugel, senior investment strategist at Stein Roe & Farnham. So what happens? Six months ago when it seemed everything technology turned to gold, investors were taking their profits from the likes of Cisco or Microsoft and throwing the proceeds into smaller and riskier tech stocks that promised a higher percentage return. But as one piece of bad news followed another, these market bulls turned bearish and yanked all their expendable investment dollars out of companies like LSI Logic, Sybase and Network Solutions. "It's unrealistic to expect Intel or Microsoft to keep improving their sales and earnings by 10 percent or 20 percent or more each quarter as they had in the past five or six quarters," said Don Collier, an analyst at ProLytix Corp. "Even the Yankees lose once in a while. You can't keep improving on incredible numbers every quarter." With anxiety running high, professional money managers and Average Joes trading online are forced to be more selective. That means selling off those stocks that made huge gains in the past year and pocketing some of the profits. The rest is shoved into bonds or blue-chip stocks that provide the most security. That's what happened Wednesday. Investors were selling into a rally after Japan's Nikkei Index gained 6 percent overnight. "I would have thought that given the positive backdrop of news overseas from Japan, we would have had a strong day today," said Phil Orlando, chief investment officer at Value Line's Asset Management division. "This is just capitulation. Investors are throwing these stocks away." And that's exactly what it's going to take to start the next bull run for technology stocks. Eventually these stocks will become so cheap that investors will simply have to buy them. Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) is a classic example. After splitting 3-for-2 in August, the stock fell from 68 and change to Wednesday's close of 43 7/8. In one day this week, Cisco lost 7 7/16. When was the last time that happened? Cisco is still the undisputed leader in the network equipment industry. As the Internet continues to grow, Cisco will see huge profits. There's nothing fundamentally different about Cisco today then there was three months ago or even six months ago. The only change is it's suddenly cheap stock price. There's more good news on the horizon, too. The Bank of England will likely cut its interest rate Thursday and Congress is expected to give the International Monetary Fund $18 billion to shore up emerging markets. Japan, finally, is about to pass a bill to mend its shaky banks and the Fed is looking to shave another quarter point off the discount rate. "You have to take the good with the bad," Collier said. "I think the biggest problem with this market right now is investors have become incredibly spoiled. The guys that tough it out and build their portfolios during this downturn will be laughing all the way to the bank by this time next year." zdii.com