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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (39140)	12/11/1998 5:35:00 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

>>>>>I usually recommend most people start with an interest only program until you get used to it<<<<< By this I assume you mean to impose discipline on myself by limiting my investment in options to the interest my money market pays? Mike, I wasn't even planning to invest that much until I got used to it. <g> I never got bit by the gambling bug, thanks Lord. Well, who knows, maybe I will get in over my head, I've been known to.<g> Thanks as always for your wise counsel.

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (39140)	12/13/1998 2:06:00 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

Hi Mike, interesting column by Jane Bryant Quinn today, about Wade Cook, who charges up to $7,995 for seminars on options (puts and calls): washingtonpost.com Some highlights: More than 400,000 people attended his classes in 379 cities last year, paying anywhere from $22 (for the privilege of hearing his sales pitch) to $7,995 for a two-day workshop. Three of Cook's 16 books have landed on Business Week magazine's bestseller list. Cook teaches "formulas" that sound to his followers like sure things -- yielding, he claims, "two-week and one-month 15 to 55 percent returns . . . repeatedly, month after month." For a peek at the other side, however, visit the Gary's World site on the World Wide Web (members.aol.com/garyzzzzz), a rallying place for recovering "Cookheads." Some typical sob stories: "I lost $3,000 in three months doing small trades" (Joe Lee, telecommunications manager, Atlanta). Paralegal Stuart E. MacGregor of Fresno, Calif., spent $6,094 on Cook products and lost $52,000 of his capital on trades. "It's not possible to learn how to make intelligent decisions on trading stock options in just a few days, weeks or even months," MacGregor says now. Wade Cook's attorney, Kiman Lucas, said Cook was unavailable for comment. Here's the big question: Does Cook make money following his own advice? A lot of evidence says no. Over eight quarterly reporting periods, Cook and his seminar speakers lost $167,699 on their securities trades. If they're losing money, why would you think they could teach you how to compound your money at 55 percent a month? Cook's company paid him more than $10.2 million last year. But the SEC filings show that his wealth doesn't come from trading, it comes from selling seminars, books and tapes. "Proof of returns" sheets, published in Cook's books and distributed in the courses, show huge winners and hardly any losers. But do you really see all his trades? Barbara Masters, a former co-manager of WIN, says you do not. In an affidavit provided to Texas regulators, she alleged that Cook told her not to show all of his losses on WIN's profit-loss statements. The intent was "to bolster the claim that Wade Cook was a successful investor," she says. Lucas concedes that the proof-of-returns tables "aren't necessarily representative" of Cook & Co.'s total returns. They're "for demonstration purposes only," she says. What about Cook's personal account? Options specialist Bruce Graham of Orange, Calif., said he handled some Cook accounts for more than two years. During that time, he alleged, Cook personally lost money. Etc. Comment?