To: Jan Garrity Allen who wrote (28848 ) 12/4/1998 7:27:00 AM From: Glenn D. Rudolph Respond to of 164684
"But first a little about buying Internet stocks (or any stocks) on Margin. We actually had quite a few e-mails questioning our anti-margin stance. Our stance is this: Margin--no. Diversification--yes. In regular stocks (Heinz, Coke, Wal-Mart) twenty is the minimum amount of stocks you should own. If you are overweighted in Internet stocks, you should probably bump that number to 30." "Example: Let's say you bought 1000 shares of Doubleclick (DCLK) Monday at $75. When your broker takes the order he asks, "will that be cash or margin," (similar in tone to a Neiman Marcus clerk asking "cash or charge") you answer, "margin." You are now the proud owner of $75,000 worth of stock--borrowing $37,500. Eight hours into trading you still own 1000 shares of Doubleclick--(now at $62) so it's now worth $62,000. Important point: You still owe the $37,500 (now and forever--or until you pay it back)." "In the real world, the one we live in, the value of YOUR investment hasn't dropped from $75,000 to $62,000. It has dropped from $37,500 to $24,000. That's a 34% whack. One day. Story not over. If it drops another 10 points tomorrow, your $37,500 is now $14,000. Two days. Game over, margin call. You can now count yourself among those investors who consider the stock market rigged, nothing but a big gamble, a place where the little guy can't get ahead and a place which is over-run with vicious shortsellers and evil market-makers. Will Doubleclick drop another ten points tomorrow ? The possibility (not probability) on a scale of one to ten is--TEN." 7/7/98. As a side note DCLK did indeed drop another ten points in the next two trading days and twenty points over the next two weeks, finally bottoming out at $14 exactly three months later. Not that you would have been there to see it (assuming you didn't meet your margin call) because on 8/3/98 the $37,500 you invested was worth ZERO as DCLK hit $37.50.