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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rupert1 who wrote (59629)	4/23/1999 9:52:00 AM
From: Brian1970	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 97611

(laughing). no, man. don't get me wrong. I didn't mean anything in a mean way. your enthusiasm is catching. you're flowing with information. somedays I feel like that, other days watching it happen just exhausts me... :-)

To: rupert1 who wrote (59629)	4/23/1999 9:58:00 AM
From: Steven N	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Here is some advice from my broker. 1. Investors sometimes only hear what they want to hear, ignoring evidence that a firm may be faltering and clinging to evidence that its future looks positive. Try not to fall in love with a stock holding, but look at your positions with an objective and critical eye. Disciplined investors will sell their positions when their original reasons for purchase are no longer valid, such as when a company's earnings deteriorate or its management changes. 2. People tend to be overconfident about their ability to forecast and make correct decisions. After a period of rising stock prices, some investors tend to mistake the power of a bull market for their own skill. To combat overconfidence, review the asset allocation of your portfolio. Keeping your allocations close to your original strategy and rebalancing when necessary can prevent your portfolio from getting lopsided in an asset class that may have soared recently. 3. Investors sometimes believe that quantitative information is more reliable than qualitative research. Unfortunately, blind faith in numbers may not lead to good investment decisions. You'd be wise to be skeptical about managers who claim to have a "black-box" method for beating the market or about companies that try to dazzle investors with detailed quantitative projections. Look carefully at the manager's track record and the company's business plan. If you don't understand an investment method or a business plan, consider avoiding the investment altogether. 4. The more familiar information seems, the more weight people give it. Money manager David Dreman has written extensively about the chronic overpricing of stocks with household names and solid track records. Do your homework and try to look beyond the familiar. Don't be biased against a company simply if you haven't heard of it before, it's in an unglamorous industry or it's been through a rough patch recently. 5. People fear loss more than they look forward to gain. People find it difficult to accept a loss by selling an investment that has gone down in price since its purchase. Follow the example of experienced investors -- before you invest, set a minimum price at which you will sell if the stock moves downward. If the stock's price reaches that minimum, cut your losses and move on to the next investment. sn