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Technology Stocks : APLN - @PLAN.INC - THE IPO -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Findlans who wrote (4)	5/14/1999 9:31:00 AM
From: Topannuity	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21

JKW- Thanks for the quote.com/ipo site reference... *H O W E V E R* ... I spent about an hour at the site until I figured out what was really going on there... The Upcoming IPO "Foresight" ratings ( which are +4 out of a possible +5 = very favorable) for APLAN are almost COMPLETELY based on HQ being the lead underwriter and nothing else. Try this yourself: print out the @PLAN report and the NEWGEN report -- both HQ underwritings currently offered at the Schwab IPO desk. These two companies couldn't be more different. Sales revenues, industries, losses, number employees, etc etc etc.. Yet Quote.com rates both a very favorable +4. Print both companies IPO reports and match them line for line and you'll see that nearly ALL THE FAVORABLE WEIGHTING that quote.com assigns to these 2 companies is due to HQ being the lead underwriter and nothing else. Now, I'll be the first to agree that the Lead Underwriter factor is probably 50% of the IPOs value to us IPO investors. But you cannot rely on that factor alone. For example... Bear stearns was lead on these 3 IPOs which all came out in recent 3 months. ATHY - a piece of dudu. IPO'd at 16 and is barely 18 today MINE - IPO'd at 25 and is 60 today PRGY - went from 15 to 26 today That's a large range of possible outcomes. On the other hand, nearly EVERYTHING that Goldman touches is a double or triple and stays that way (Except for its own stock, so far anyway). Also, ANYTHING that Volpe Brown underwrites DROPS DEAD nearly immediately. So, getting back to HQ... They have winners AND losers. So I wouldn't rely too much on the quote.com IPO Edge data, if it relies so heavily on the underwriters prior performance. Hersh