Amy, now that we know you are a paid stock promoter for USAT could you answer this one little question?
Trendmark international
DIRECTOR of MARKETING:
Mr. Bill York - Email: Bill York
David York
Director of Corporate Giving
O.K. I smell a rat and if I am right I know why the stock has gone up. You can be sure these guys own shares but then I read this article on CBS Marketwatch. I found out about it on the raging bull message boards. Lawrence York, co-manager of the WWW Internet Fund. Get the picture """""YORK"""""" same last name as those two clowns that work for Trendmark. TOP 15 STOCKS HELD, one of them is USAT. I have this gut feeling they are related. They are the ones driving it up.
how do like this quote from article; Short-Term Stock Traders: Check out the portfolios of these Internet sector funds for ideas on which companies their managers think will be the powers controlling the Net's future. After all, guys like WWW Internet Fund's Lawrence York are analyzing this industry every day. If you're a day trader, you ought to follow them like a hawk for leads on what to buy -- or sell.
Hot 'Internet stock' picks from fund managers
Find out what the WWW Internet Fund is buying
By Dr. Paul B. Farrell, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 8:37 PM ET Jan 8, 1999
LOS ANGELES (CBS.MW) -- What the heck is an Internet stock? Well, I called WWW Internet Fund for a definitive answer. I have long resisted writing about this rather inconsequential "Internet funds" sector, even though I've written three books on Internet investing. This week I jumped in and wrote a few columns. What did I find? Turns out that these Net funds are really technology funds in disguise and that they're doing quite well:
INTERNET FUNDS
Ticker
Inception
Net assets 1-year return
Munder NetNet
(MNNAX)
8/19/96
$81 million 120%
The Internet Fund
(WWWFX)
10/21/96
$5 million (est.) 235%
WWW Internet
(WWIFX)
8/01/96
$7 million 70%
Monument Internet
N/A
11/16/98
N/A N/A
But they certainly are nowhere near as hot as what the popular press defines as "Internet stocks":
INTERNET STOCKS
ticker
1998 INCREASE
Amazon (AMZN) 966%
Yahoo! (YHOO) 606%
America Online
(AOL) 522%
eBay
(EBAY) 434%
Infoseek
(SEEK) 365%
Excite (XCIT) 198%
Lycos
(LCOS) 158%
Onsale (ONSL) 144%
CNET (CNET) 73%
I also became intrigued with the strong interest that short-term traders, as well as long-term fund investors, exhibited in these four small funds, which only manage about $100 million in assets. After all, that's a drop in the bucket given the $5.5 trillion fund industry and the recent explosion in e-commerce.
Moreover, WWW Internet Fund uses a very conservative portfolio management strategy, which probably accounts for the fact that it's one-year returns are "only" 70 percent. This is obviously lower than the 235 percent notched by t Internet Fund -- whose portfolio we'll analyze next week (it has more of the high fliers listed above) -- but certainly in line with many of the top technology sector funds in our Lipper Analytics database, which are solid alternatives:
TOP TECHNOLOGY FUNDS Ticker
1-yr. return
3-yr. return
Fid. Sel. Computer
(FDCPX) 106%
42%
Fid. Sel. Electronics
(FSELX) 69%
41%
Fid. Sel. Technology
(FSPTX) 88%
35%
Fid. Sel. Software
(FSCSX) 51%
31%
Fid. Sel. Dev/Comm
(FSDCX) 75%
32%
PIMCO Innovation (PIVAX) 93%
40%
PBHG Tech & Comm (PBTCX) 40%
33%
Rob. Steph. InfoAge (RSIFX) 66%
33%
Firsthand Tech Value (TVFQX) 33%
34%
Alliance Technology (ALTFX) 71%
30%
Seligman Commun (SLMCX) 40%
26%
Mgn. Stn. DW Info Fund (IFOBX) 67%
25%
Kemper Technology (KTCAX) 52%
27%
So what the heck is an Internet stock? This industry, if you can call it that, is expanding so rapidly that in a few short years every company had better be an Internet company or it'll be dead meat, as my son would say.
An Internet company ain't what the press says
I called Lawrence York, co-manager of the WWW Internet Fund, to get his expert definition of "Internet stock." After all, he's buying and selling Internet stocks all the time.
WWW Internet is managed by a conservative money manager running about $50 million in assets for private pensions, trusts and corporations. Its doors opened in mid-1996. The fund is quite small, with only $7 million in assets, but it is virtually guaranteed to grow as e-commerce explodes in the next year.
Here's how the WWW Internet Fund structures its portfolio (in fact, this is the latest version, which will be posted on the fund's Web site next week):
TOP 15 STOCKS HELD
BY THE WWW INTERNET FUND
"MATURE" stocks (50%)
Cisco Systems (CSCO)
Compaq Comp. (CPQ)
Lucent Technology (LU)
Texas Instruments (TXN)
Dell Computer (DELL)
"MID-LIFE" stocks (25%)
Dallas Semicon. (DS)
PeopleSoft (PSFT)
Comdisco (CDO)
Novel Networks (NOVL)
Altera Semicon. (ALTR)
"ADOLESCENT" stocks (25%)
E-Trade (EGRP)
USA Talks (USAT)
Data Broadcasting (DBCC)
Verisign (VRSN)
CMG Information (CMGI)
Notice how it defines "Internet stocks" as falling into three categories, breaking up the portfolio's asset allocations into three segments depending on risk, market cap, products and other criteria:
"Mature" companies make up half of the portfolio, according to the fund, represented by "large, successful computer and network companies that are aggressively pursuing Internet products and services," including "modem and box manufacturers like Cisco, Lucent and Compaq."
"Mid-Life" stocks make up another quarter of the portfolio, consisting of "fast-growing midsized companies that have used their products and services to capitalize on the first wave of Internet growth [and] growing at better than 15 to 20 percent," in the networking and computer businesses.
Finally, "Adolescent" companies make up the remaining 25 percent of the portfolio, invested in "emerging upstarts that have experienced red-hot IPOs and record-breaking valuations," and depend on the emerging online e-commerce business.
As a result, the high-priced, risky popular Internet stocks -- Yahoo!, Amazon, eBay, America Online -- aren't in the fund's top 15 holdings. In fact, York's team has already sold Yahoo! and AOL because they "wouldn't hold stocks at these values." Instead, much of the portfolio consists of blue-chip technology stocks.
Are you a long-term investor or a day trader?
That's why these so-called Internet sector funds are just technology funds in disguise. And, in fact, fund data trackers like Lipper and Morningstar usually just lump them in with technology funds. But in either of these categories, these funds look solid and are likely to grow with the Internet's projected growth.
Now I see two distinct investment strategies emerging for online investors:
· Long-Term Asset Allocations: As an investment for a long-term buy 'n' hold mutual-fund investor who wants to put some higher-risk money in an Internet fund, Munder NetNet, the Internet Fund and WWW Internet Fund all look great as alternatives to a small-cap, aggressive growth or technology sector fund.
· Short-Term Stock Traders: Check out the portfolios of these Internet sector funds for ideas on which companies their managers think will be the powers controlling the Net's future. After all, guys like WWW Internet Fund's Lawrence York are analyzing this industry every day. If you're a day trader, you ought to follow them like a hawk for leads on what to buy -- or sell.
Next week, as I mentioned earlier, we'll profile the Internet Fund's portfolio so you can see its Internet stock picks.
And that's my bottom line for today.
Dr. Paul B. Farrell, mutual funds editor of CBS MarketWatch, is author of "Mutual Funds on the Net" and was executive vice president of Financial News Network. Farrell has a Ph.D. in psychology and a juris doctor degree. More links to Farrell-on-Funds columns.
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