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Strategies & Market Trends : Market Gems:Stocks w/Strong Earnings and High Tech. Rank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr. Generic who wrote (20925)	12/30/1998 8:34:00 PM
From: Jon Stept	Respond to of 120523

OT Hi George. RE: MSNBC Article... thank you. My opinion. First, organized crime is involved... oh my god! Like they aren't involved in our lives already. Nope, it all started with the evil internet stocks. Yeah right. They just came in for these internet stocks and now we should be really worried. If that is the tack, why not get rid of Bulletin Board stocks as they have a reputation for attracting questionable companies. I'm not condoning crime, but don't use it as an excuse to get rid of legitimate and legal activity. Oh yeah, and the market has been surging because of about 10-15 stocks that are out of control. Yep, when these stocks hit the fan, which they will, it is going to bring down the whole market. Yeah.... of course 10-15 causing thousands to tank. The article confuses the internut stock phenomena with the bull market momentum that may correct as it did earlier this year for other reasons. But to say that these stocks are somehow underpinning the entire market??? Ludicrous. The article brushes off “new paradigms” but this is as close as the article gets to actually explain, rationally, what may be going on so maybe it can be controlled if that is what is desired. My opinion.... it can't be controlled and why should it. Let the market take care of it. Are any rules being broken? No. The personal computer has democratized the access to information and as a result the markets are getting democratized as well. And this is just the beginning...all those brokers- stock, real estate, loan, car, insurance... all those middle men may not be around for much longer because people can now get the information and do the job themselves and save money. It is becoming a self-serve world. And companies can save money and provide the services for cheaper. There are now thousands of people, at work and home, executing trades for 7 bucks with a few thousand shares and many of them do it for a few stocks a few times a day. In my opinion, that is what is going on. A new population of day and position traders has emerged and that threatens the market because now everybody who wants to take a risk can do it for $14 without a stock broker. The days of, “My broker called me with a hot tip!” are gone. It will get even worse for them as newer systems go mainstream that let you pass by the broker all together and pick the market maker yourself. Then the broker is gone. You just pick the market maker with the price you like, and make the trade your self. That's efficiency. And it is democratic. This is a guess, but the chat boards are replacing the traditional brokerage houses that invest their clients money and pump up a stock. Instead, individuals participate in these dynamic virtual brokerage houses online and that appears to move the stock. I have participated in the bull run, but have watched from the sidelines at the internut feeding frenzy... Hey, if that is what people want to do... go for it. It isn't my money.. But I am sure not going to police them because they are making money and it looks so easy and I am getting left behind. Nope, I just bring up my table and watch the Imalls as they come back to earth because the feeders find another daytrading darling and remember that could have been me losing 30% of my speculation. How about you George? Do you agree with the article? Jon :)

To: Mr. Generic who wrote (20925)	12/30/1998 8:45:00 PM
From: Jenna	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 120523

<<Stocks that used to take a month to double in price now double in a week, a day, even mere minutes. There are so many examples they hardly need citing anymore. Nor do we need bother listening any longer to strained "new paradigm" rationales for why price-earnings ratios don't matter. We don't even hear anymore talk about "price-revenues" multiples, and similar nonsense. Now all that one needs to do in order to make a stock take off is to put out a press release announcing plans for a Web site. You don't even need the actual site -- just the "plan" for one will do well enough. >>> I'm not sure you haven't as an author and by habit added some embellished fictionalization for a more piquant taste to your post. I do however agree tht the stocks are starting to double quickly. What started out with EBAY continues with IPO's.. but most of us can barely get hold of 200 shares of an IPO stock so I don't see the relevance. <<The criminal underworld is now spreading like oil on a mud puddle throughout this whole mess. It is impossible to escape the feeling that crimes like front-running -- in which a broker trades for his own account before submitting a customer's order that he knows will move the market price of a stock -- are now rampant. Yet the scale on which they are taking place is so vast that the cops just seem to stand by dumbfounded. >> I don't have to time to test this out or investigate these allegations, nor am I sure how I would go about this if I did, but I would think you would be careful about naming companies or brokerages for possible libel suits. We do occasionally benefit these run ups but as 'victims' or maybe 'patsies' i guess and part of the 'herd' desire to cash in on what this 'criminal underworld' began.. I see some of this in what happened to Rogers on CNBC when he was accused of purposely calling WAVO a junk stock so he could cash in a a short.. but I am not sure this will last long. Don't forget National Discount Broker was an 500% earnings surprise and some of the others like SKYM, and MALL were perhaps part of the the 'layers' of the avalanche begun when EBAY and UBIT or whatever came. Judging from the e-mail and feedback I am getting, most everyone will not 'throw away good money' on internet schemes especially after they have risen 100% or more. They are of course making money. From what I can see, some of the threaders are doing their own research and are either adopting or dismissing these stocks on a case by case, or rather, a stock by stock basis. Whatever it is, or isn't, I don't think it will really 'metastasize' to all stocks or destroy the usual trading environment where we hope for 5-10% gains on a trade. I for one have always propagated the 'rational' approach to stock trading, not holding for too long but cashing in on profit. and have had some very good 'earners' (hence the phrase 'earnings plays') and 'fundamentally sound' stock picks although internet related (NSOL, VRSN,CMGI) So I'm not sure where you are posting beside here, but I don't think this thread is that much of a depository of these 'stocks'.. and to be perfectly honest.. I think you are fictionalizing all this. Most of us have the brains to know a stock like WM or SFSK will ultimately supercede the 'flash in the pan' internets but why not make a few bucks off this craze? We did not begin it, but we could capitalize on it. In a society where a ball player can make more money in a season than Myanmar's annual gross national product who are we to say who is criminal or why.. you might as well attack capitalism in general and the fact that we are the richest country in the world.