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

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (48912)	2/25/1999 2:56:00 PM
From: Alias Shrugged	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Mike Can you follow up on the conversation CB, Earlie and Mary Cluney are having. Mary is showing a genuine interest in finding out practical steps to be taken to protect herself if the bear comes. Could you please offer the thread a 10 or 20 step program, assuming someone is heavily invested in Large Cap Growth US equities, with the steps proceeding from least to most aggressive. I will throw out a few ideas (and let you offer the real thing!). 1. Keep your stock, buy some puts. 2. Sell most (all?) of these stocks. [Mary: Investing in money market earning 5% doesn't look too slick now; 1 year from now, earning 5% while the market has dropped 30% will look make you look like a gneius] 3. Hedge against inflation and sinking dollar. (Buy CEFs of beaten down countries; buy natural resource stocks including oil, gold, etc.) 4. Buy nekkid puts on the "bloated ones" Thanks Mike

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (48912)	2/25/1999 3:09:00 PM
From: John Koligman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Michael, you might be interested in this post from your buddy LOD on the Dell thread. It looks like some of the longer term holders with substantial profits might be smart enough to lighten up <ggg>... John To: Mohan Marette (104995 ) From: LONGonDELL Thursday, Feb 25 1999 2:40PM ET Reply # of 105035 THREAD: In the interests of total honesty and full disclosure, I wanted to report to all of you that I have liquidated 25% of my DELL equity holdings minutes ago. My issue in selling has nothing to do with any concerns about downside for DELL. This is strictly part of my overall, systematic, diversification moves that I started in November of last year. In recent months, I had taken on significant amounts of margin debt to open long positions in other stocks. While the percentage of margin to equity was within a "safe" range in my opinion, the actual dollar amount of margin was actually twice as much as what my account was valued at on 12/31/97. This exceptional growth that made this borrowing possible was in great part attributable to my long position in DELL. This sale today, significantly reduces my margin balance, while allowing me to leave other equity positions untouched. My DELL position now accounts for 37.5% of my equity portfolio. That's down from 90+% in early November 1998. My only other sale of DELL occurred in November, and that was a sale of about 16.6% of my DELL at the time. Other stocks, including WCOM, CSCO, LVLT, SUNW, COMS account for 10-15% of the equity portfolio, each. Smaller positions are held in LEVL, ITWO, AWRE, ASND/LU, and CCU, among others. I have hedged the DELL sale with a large August call position at $90. I also retain sizable positions of LEAPS in DELL, WCOM, CCU, CSCO, SUNW, RMBS, and COMS. I'm sure that the bears will lampoon this move, and try to make hay out of it. All I can say to them is that at least I have been in DELL since March 1996, and I remain in it on a very significant basis. I think that it is important for me to be honest with all of you about this move that I have given much consideration to over the last six months. THIS IS NOT A RECOMMENDATION BY ME TO THE THREAD TO SELL. I think that it will remain a core tech holding, and I shall remain LONGonDELL. Best Regards to all of my Friends on this Thread, LONGonDELL