SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Mark Fowler who wrote (49525)4/8/1999 10:55:00 AM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 164684
 
No much longer than a day trade, get some Egrp if you can I added to it at 87 today!!

At 97??



To: Mark Fowler who wrote (49525)4/8/1999 9:23:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph  Respond to of 164684
 
The Epicenter – 8 April 1999
5
It is important to keep in mind that a major driver of the internet stocks is an
imbalance of supply and demand. The price of any good or service is determined
not by its inherent “worth” but by the law of supply and demand—and good
internet investments are in short supply and great demand. As described, we
believe that there are compelling reasons for investors to invest in the internet
(demand), and, unfortunately, a relative paucity of great opportunities through
which to do so (supply). If you want to live in Manhattan—an experience that
many reasonable people would consider less than worthless—you have to pay
mind-boggling Manhattan prices. If you want to invest in the stocks of companies
that appear to be on their way to becoming the leading growth companies of the
early 21st Century, you unfortunately have to pay mind-boggling internet prices
(at least for now).
The details are important, but we would not talk ourselves out of buying a leader
because of a small amount of hair on the story. The best stock-picking tool in
this sector right now is a shotgun, not a rifle (it's all about the “story.”) The best
companies, moreover, have been able to evolve along with the industry, avoiding
destruction and pursuing new opportunities (which makes it frustrating to say
“well, until they fix that problem, they won't have me as a shareholder”—because
by the time they fix it, the people they do have as shareholders may be 2X as rich).
As one investor we respect says, “when the microscopes come out, the returns
become microscopic.”
We would not waste a lot of time looking for “cheap” names – no internet stocks
are cheap, and you get what you pay for. We do not believe that the internet
bubble as a whole is tulipmania, but there are plenty of tulip bulbs masquerading as
companies out there. If the sector corrects, we believe the stocks of the weakest
companies will drop 70% or more, and we don't think they will necessarily come
back. When the biotech stocks finally blew up, the stock of one of the strongest
companies in the industry, Amgen, dropped 50% in a month—but it is now trading
at more than 3X its high prior to the correction. A lot of the lesser names just
disappeared.
We would not short these stocks simply because they are expensive—too often in
the industry's short history, this has been fatal. Just because a stock should
regress to a historical mean doesn't mean it will—especially when every investor
in the world is trying to accumulate it. Although the internet stocks are
desperately tempting to short on valuation, we would carefully analyze the
risk/reward ratio before doing so. The most you can make when you short a stock
is 100%. As has been made clear over the last two years, the most you can lose
when you short these stocks is, well, 1,000%-plus percent—which is not exactly a
compelling risk/reward proposition.
Based on the sector's propensity for boom-and-bust price spikes, we would
actively manage risk exposure. At least three times over the last year, the
internet stocks have spiked wildly in a frenzy of panic-buying and short-covering
and seemed as though they would never come back down. Each time, though,
when the euphoria wore off, they pulled back 30% to 50% from their spike highs.
In the event that we get another one of these spikes, we wouldn't panic—we
would trim positions into the run and buy in again once the bloom falls off the
rose. The stocks are very sensitive to catalysts (such as the gushing press about
the growth of e-commerce over the holiday season), so before adding to positions,
we would also think about what might be coming next.
What we look for in internet investments. In trying to pick the sector's best long-term
performers, we tend to look for the following: 1) businesses that are possible
only because of the internet and could not exist without it—such as AOL, Yahoo!,
eBay, Doubleclick, and to a lesser extent, Amazon.com; we do not believe that
major internet market value will be created by porting existing media and retailing
concepts online; 2) enormous market opportunities—if the concept works, we
want the company to be able to get huge; 3) platforms or foundations that can
Remember the laws of supply
and demand.
Rely on a shotgun.
You get what you pay for.
Keep your head if others lose
theirs.
Key characteristics.