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Non-Tech : Ashton Technology (ASTN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dr. Seuss who wrote (1055)	5/17/1999 6:28:00 PM
From: mst2000	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4443

Doc - An investment in Ashton is not about AG (Auric you-know-who), it's about ATG. AG may be the Einstein of corporate valuation and prediction, but he clearly knows next to nothing about ATG - his analysis thus far takes snippets out of context and draws sweeping conclusions from them: 144's are filed, therefore insiders are fleeing en masse; financing obtained over a year ago affords conversion and equity rights, therefore they are in a dilution death spiral; their past revenues don't support their current burn rate; therefore, while it may just eke out survival, more likely than not it won't . . . . EXCEPT, with 2 exceptions, the 144's were NOT filed by true insiders and do not even necessarily mean that sales have occurred (your and his continuing failure to acknowledge this simple fact evidences how shoddy the research is and thus how underwhelming the conclusions you draw are) -- the 2 who are true insiders either still own a large position after the sale reflected (Blohm), or are leaving the company (and apparently not because they want to) (Eprile); the equity financing which forms the basis of your "death spiral" prediction not only saved the company, but more importantly, most of the dilution it required has already occurred, and the rest is already factored into any thoughtful stock price valuations (e.g., we use 23-25 million shares fully diluted to quantify per share calculations - there are now between 15-16 MM shares outstanding); and the past revenues don't mean squat, since ATG is looking almost exclusively to future revenue to be profitable, revenue that will start in earnest in July (if not sooner). Until that revenue is generated, you will be able to play off of the doubts of future uncertainty, which are generic to any start-up and not specific to Ashton per se -- I'll do my crowing once the numbers are in. If I'm not mistaken, AG is the same guy who told us that the run-ups of the past 8 weeks were mostly based on the Gomez private placement/IPO rumor and a CNBC paid programming spot, and that they would fade almost as fast as they occurred -- yet here we are weeks later and the price is not only hanging tough, it is actually going up by a healthy amount) in moderate to heavy volume despite the absence of palpable news. Does that not make you wonder at all about whether the conclusions upon which you base your own analysis may need re-examination? Maybe it's time to turn your critic's eye on AG's analytical shortcomings as they relate to his "analysis" of ATG, instead of following in blind awe based exclusively on his past accomplishments. I can't speak to his prior accuracy (I'm sure there are those who can, but I am not one of them) but I am here to tell you that AG clearly does not understand ATG's business as well as you think he does, because so much of what he says is way off the mark -- I admit that I barely understand what MUST be understood to make a large investment in a company like ATG intelligently, and I've been at the research of this one a lot longer and lot more carefully than AG has, and I can tell you without equivocation that, whatever snakes may be lying in the grass on this (or any other) investment, Auric's analysis is just off the mark. By the way, I'm not crying WAAAAH - I am up several hundred percent - but I'm not even close to being a seller on my core position at 11 1/2, not based on what I know today. You see, it's not that ATG "hasn't died yet" -- it's that its life has just begun. MST

To: Dr. Seuss who wrote (1055)	5/17/1999 6:52:00 PM
From: DLJMT	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4443

>>I've watched AG for a long time and his advise has always been correct<< Please take a close look at the GNET thread earlier this year. I think I was up 300+% when he finally disappeared. I'm not up quite that much with ASTN -yet- (started buying in at 4 1/4) but it does help keep his posts in perspective. It must take a special person to be a professional pessimist... to each his own.

To: Dr. Seuss who wrote (1055)	5/17/1999 10:05:00 PM
From: Daniel Levin	Respond to of 4443

Ok fine AG is an Einstein he is the most diligent investor on SI all this is great I hope he makes a load of money but can he please stop posting the same thing over and over again unless he has nothing else to do its wasting everyone's time. why does he not find another bad company for us so that we can short that one as well. At the least it will give him something new to contribute I don't even care if it is not related to ASTN as long as it is something new.

To: Dr. Seuss who wrote (1055)	5/18/1999 1:43:00 PM
From: J.Y. Wang	Respond to of 4443

Agreed. I came upon A@P, AG, Mr.Pink and others after the DBCC fiasco. A&P was waving red flags at the DBCC runup. Of course, I thought he was a MF because how dare he trash a stock I owned?! DBCC tanked from 38 or so to sub 20, where it's at right now. It was a five figure tuition payment for me. People get too emotionally attached to their stocks sometimes -- I did. Now, if I am long something, I read what other longs have to say but, perhaps more importantly, I read what the shorts have to say. I have made/saved a lot of money doing it this way.