HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ask@cbnews.cb.att.com (Arthur S. Kamlet)
Subject: Re: Mutual Funds, year end distributions, Dec. withdrawals
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories,  Columbus, Ohio
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 23:17:45 GMT

In article <1992Nov23.194359.29833@cbnewsj.cb.att.com> troy@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (Troy Cauble) writes:
>
>I have some Mutual Fund shares that (typically) have cap gains
>distributions at the end of the year.  It's appeared in the
>past that the distribution is subtracted directly from the
>share price, so that suddenly you owe taxes even though you've
>had no net gain (as compared to the day before).

If you buy the fund today, and tomorrow it goes ex-dividend, you
suddenly have this taxable dividend income and corresponding
decrease in NAV of the fund.   But if you have held the fund for a
while and had no plans to sell, it makes no particularly good sense
to sell right now to avoid a dividend.

>Is this correct?   It makes a kind of sense to me.
>
>Anyway, I'm thinking of withdrawing a sizable amount soon for
>a new car purchase.  Would it be to my advantage to do this
>before the distribution as opposed to after?  Or will I somehow
>be taxed for this "gain" anyway.


If you are in the 33% bracket and you will have net capital gains
and you plan to sell your shares anyway, then there is an advantage
to selling them before the ex-div date.  You would lose the
dividend, but make it back up on long term gain, which is taxed only
at 28%.

>If this "works", what keeps a person from repeatedly selling
>before distributions and buying back after?  (Assuming a no-load fund.)
>

The advantage is only if you are in the 33% bracket.

There's also no guarantee that the price will truly fall to equal
the dividend you lost.  And if others have the same idea you have
then the price will start to fall before the exdiv date as others
try to take advantage of this trick.
>-troy
>Troy.Cauble@att.com
>(the email address at the top is WRONG)


-- 
Art Kamlet  a_s_kamlet@att.com  AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: hal@pollux (Hal N. Brooks)
Subject: Re: Borland International?
Organization: University of Georgia
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 06:47:06 GMT

In article <4250046@hpcc01.corp.hp.com> chin@hpcc01.corp.hp.com (Frederick Chin) writes:
>
>Borland International's stock is pretty low now.  Anyone have
>any idea why?  Also, is it a good buy or not...
>
>Just asking for opinions.
>
>Fred Chin
>chin@hpcc01.corp.hp.com
>

A Dean Witter analyst downgraded it on Monday, saying
it would be going lower (guess he was right).  He gave
an estimated EPS for the quarter ending 12/31 as 0.26,
while the consensus is 0.35.

A Lehman analyst was reported to have downgraded borl on
Tuesday morning.

Concerns about lack of Windoze applications was cited as
a problem earlier in the year.

I'm not sure about the P/E.  If you extrapolate from the 0.26
estimate it's around 24, from 0.35 it's around 18.  I don't
have the data on previous 3 quarters, or estimates for next year.
Tough call.  This could be a buying opportunity, but I suppose
that's what it looked like on May 8 when it dropped 4.625 points
to close at 48.625.  If you had jumped in then you would have
a 50% return on your investment. :-)  And then you could have
picked up a few more shares on June 24, when it dropped 
4.75 to 40.5.  And a few more on Oct 7, when it dropped
6.625 to 30.75.  This is beginning to look like a trend
I wouldn't want to buck.

<<<<<< personal customer comments follow >>>>>>>

On the other hand, I've always liked their products, though
I miss the days when Turbo Pascal (the whole compiler
environment!) used around 39K of memory and easily fit
on a DS/DD diskette along with DOS.  I believe
Borland C++ with all the works weighs in at about 48M
of disk space!  And people complain about OS/2!

Personally, I just wish they would send me my copy of Brief!
At least they were nice enough to call and say it would be
a while, but it's been about a month and a half since I sent
in the order.  Borland Brief?  I guess that's another point,
they seem to have gone on a software buying spree themselves.
I always considered them to be good developers, but lately it
seems they've been acquiring more than they've been developing.
That Symantec/Digital Communications Assoc. business strategy
never really appealed to me as an investor.

And I wish they'd ship Borland C++ for OS/2 (if they're still
planning on it).

And I wish they would be a bit more restrained in the frequency
of software upgrades!  Every time I turn around they're sending
me a coupon to upgrade something or another.

=============================================================================
 Hal N. Brooks     Voice: (706) 546-7792     Internet: hal@pollux.cs.uga.edu
=============================================================================
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: keith@iscp.Bellcore.COM (Keith Hawkins)
Subject: A stupid question I should know
Reply-To: keith@iscp.Bellcore.COM (Keith Hawkins)
Organization: Bell Communications Research (Bellcore)
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 19:55:51 GMT



Hello,

After reading time and time again about this or that company
issuing 2 million more shares, it suddenly dawned on me
that I don't understand how this process works !!

I understand a stock split, where each slice of the
corporate pie is just being divided into smaller slices.  
But I don't know where new shares come from.  

If a share is supposed to represent a peice of the corporation, 
how can "new" peices get created??  Where did these new peices 
come from?

Are these shares that already existed, but were held
internally by the corporation??

If anyone can shed light on how this process works,
it would be greatly appreciated.  

Thanks,
Keith

Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: crisar@rulcvx.LeidenUniv.nl (Anton van Rosmalen)
Subject: Medium-Long term direction of dollar
Organization: CRI, institute for telecommunication and computerservices.
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 13:23:53 GMT

As was correctly remarked a countries economy has a dominant
effect on interest rates , which are domimant in detreminating
the exchange rate ...
Indeed german money market rates are coming down, The question is when ?.
i invested in dollar denominated values 12/18 months ago with a strong
beleive that european currencies will devalue against the dollar and 
eventully they will as interest rates go up in the USA and go down in
Europe ...
look for the dollar to hang on to around 1.60 dmarks, and to rise
sharply and quickly as market sentiment is positif for the dollar
and any excuse (impuls) on economic data will push it upwards.
Market gurus in europe see the dollar quickly going towards 
2.10 - 2.30 in 1993-1994 period ... (according to statistics is its
PPI ) .... i certainly hope so .
From: 13501TMC@MSU (Tim Casey)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Thinking of investing in Novell
Date: 18 Nov 92 14:47:10 GMT
Organization: Michigan State University


      I was thinking of the same. I called Novell and I would wait until they
come out with the new version of their Lan software next year. In the mean time
look at OLICOM. Usually looking at a company requires research and is beyond
the scope of this board (unless someone wants to do it for you). I would
suggest picking up a copy of the _Investers Business Daily_ to look at the
relative strenth of a company, etc. Good Luck.

caseytim@student.msu.edu
------------------------- Original Article -------------------------
From: burr@seas.gwu.edu (Timothy J. Burr)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Thinking of investing in Novell
Date: 9 Nov 92 20:02:40 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: George Washington University

I'm thinking of buying shares in Novell.  I have a good handle on
their current set of products and their future direction.  What
I don't know so much of is:

1) What does their balance sheet look like?  How much in debt
	are they?

2) The cohesiveness and nimbleness of their upper management.  I
	know this is somewhat subjective, but any thoughts are
	welcome.

3) The specifics of their joint partership with Unix Software
	Foundation (i.e., UNIVEL)

4) If their are any rumors or thoughts out their about any future
	acquisitions by Novell - or acquisitions of Novell.

Tim
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: acheng@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Albert Cheng)
Subject: Re: Yields and Betas...huh?
Originator: acheng@shalom.ncsa.uiuc.edu
Organization: Nat'l Ctr for Supercomp App (NCSA) @ University of Illinois
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 20:46:52 GMT

In article <168A29E34.RKSHUKLA@SUVM.SYR.EDU> RKSHUKLA@SUVM.SYR.EDU (Ravi Shukla) writes:
> [A detail explanation skipped, but THANKS.]
> 
>     stock retrun = alpha + beta * index return
> 
>Therefore, we can write:
> 
>     Change in stock return = beta * change in index return
> 
>So, truely and technically speaking, if the market return is 2% above its
>mean, the stock return would be 3% above its mean, if the stock beta is 1.5.
>How useful is it to know that? I don't know.

Does it mean beta can vary from 0 to infinite?  Can I interpret beta
this way:

	Beta			Characteristics
	Close to 0		Dull investment like Utilities stocks
	1			Matching S&P 500.  E.g. index funds
	>>1			Wide swings like small cap. funds

Can beta be negative?  If so, I would imagine precious metals would have
-1 beta value.

You are welcome to correct my comments.

Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: murphy@rock.enet.dec.com ()
Subject: Buying just one share - FAQ
Reply-To: murphy@rock.enet.dec.com ()
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 17:53:06 GMT


The latest Money Magazine has posted a good answer to this FAQ.  A.G. Edwards
has a special commission rate for purchases of single shares.  A flat 16% of the
share price, or about $6 for Disney.  This will get you into the DRIP without 
too much pain.  Call your local AG Edwards broker for details.

Murph
From: tucker@shiva.edsg.hac.com (George Tucker)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Inflation Coming? (Gold?)
Date: 18 Nov 92 18:27:35 GMT
Reply-To: tucker@shiva.UUCP (George Tucker)
Organization: Hughes Aircraft Co., El Segundo, CA

>> Is it the price of the stock that determines whether it is cheap?

Sure, price today relative to price tomorrow.

	 George Tucker        tucker@shiva.hac.com
	Signature line awaiting FDA approval.

Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: vilok@bmerh322.bnr.ca (Vilok Kusumakar)
Subject: Re: Newbridge
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 00:13:50 GMT

In article <gf3bOH_00iV181jdQy@andrew.cmu.edu> Joel Bloch <jb6k+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:

There is an almost full page article on NewBridge in Canadian Financial post
this weekend. They have got lots of good contracts lately in the area of ATM
and there are rumors that AT&T is going to take it over (company is of
course denying it). But the PE ratio is very high - 137 !!

---------------
Vilok Kusumakar                    OSI Protocols for tomorrow......
vilok@bnr.ca                       Bell-Northern Research, Ltd.
Phone: (613) 763-2273              P.O. Box 3511, Station C 
Fax:   (613) 765-4777              Ottawa, Ontario, K1Y 4H7

Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: lott@bogner.informatik.uni-kl.de (Christopher Lott AGSE)
Subject: Re: buying foreign currency for the little guy
Organization: Universitaet Kaiserslautern FB Informatik
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 11:31:41 GMT

In article <0BueuB3w161w@cdthq.UUCP> gary@cdthq.UUCP (Gary Heston) writes:
>I've never run across travelers' checks in other than dollar
>denominations.

What!?  AAA, in every corner of America, sells AmEx checks in
DMark, FFranc, and some others, I forget.  Those are the two that
I have purchased myself.  They charge no commission for their
members, but the rate isn't as good as you would get on the
same day at a bank for the checks - but then you pay commissions.

Hard currency costs much more than checks - you pay higher commissions
and get worse rates.  The explanation I heard for this is that
banks can simply cancel the traveler's checks and somehow get the
value for them, but the cash has to get handled, stored, etc. which
is more costly.

chris...
-- 
Christopher Lott    lott@informatik.uni-kl.de   +49 (631) 205-3334, -3331 Fax
Post: FB Informatik - Bau 57, Universitaet KL, W-6750 Kaiserslautern, Germany
From: bakken@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Bakken)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Where is the best place to stick it?
Date: 23 Nov 92 22:20:23 GMT
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson

In article <5685@bacon.IMSI.COM> jordan@IMSI.COM (Jordan Hayes) writes:
>Gary Heston <gary@cdthq.UUCP> writes:

	Wipe out the credit cards, put the rest in investments, and put
	the money you were paying on the cards into either more
	investments or partying.

>There's the point: people who pay off that debt will *not* be inclined
>to "pay back" the original lump.  In a sense, if you inherit $100k, and
>you use $20k of it to pay off credit card debt, you've "loaned" one
>account to pay another.  Now you're losing return on that $20k.  If you
>don't take the original cash flow you were paying for debt service and
>"repay" the $100k account, you're down for the long run.

>The numbers make sense: it's the actions of individuals who will in
>fact party instead of putting the money back that leads me to say
>"stick with the cash flow" of debt service.

>/jordan

Well, Jordan, I suspect that everyone who has advised to get rid of
debt has assumed that the inheritee would be reasonably prudent.
(I think this is very wise advice, BTW.)
If someone is going to act as you describe above, then they're
pretty foolish and won't prosper no matter what.  Its only a question
of if the $100K lasts them 6 months or 3 years (look at UW football
player Billy Joe Hobert....).
--
Dave Bakken                               Internet: bakken@cs.arizona.edu
Dept. of Computer Science; U of Arizona   Voice:    +1 602 621 4098      
Tucson, AZ 85721; USA                     FAX:      +1 602 621 4246
The fact that you're paranoid doesn't prove they're *not* out to get you.
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: pearson_steven@tandem.com (Steven R. Pearson)
Subject: Re: Working Assets
Organization: Tandem Computers Inc.,  Cupertino, CA
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 18:43:59 GMT

In article <1992Nov19.002127.22274@gumby.dsd.trw.com>, suhre@meltami.dsd.trw.com (Maurice E. Suhre) writes:
> 
> In article <1992Nov18.192522.16924@tandem.com> pearson_steven@tandem.com (Steven R. Pearson) writes:
> 
> >Proponents of SRI argue that eventually the virtue of "good"
> >companies will be realized in the market.  
> 
> I disagree.

Doubtless there are a multitude of arguments from various different proponents.
The argument I mention above came from a book called "Good Money."  The
author is a (self-proclaimed?) founder of the socially responsible investing
movement.  I forget his name.  His logic is that eventually good behavior will
result in better earnings relative to bad behavior.  He expects new environmental
regulations plus lawsuits re environment, product safety, hiring practices and
employee relations, etc. to become a greater cost as time goes on for "bad"
companies.  I view this as possible but by no means assured within a reasonable
investment time frame.
 
>  I think the argument goes more like this:
>
> Examine the set of all stocks and look for companies that seem
> appropriate for investment on either a fundamental basis, technical
> basis, or some combination of the two.  Then you apply the "socially
> resposible" filter to that list and invest in those that pass.  This is
> what the "Clean Yield" newsletter said they were doing when they were
> interviewed by Buz Schwartz.  As best as I remember, their first pass
> would generate about 500 companies, and the filter would pare it down to
> 50 or so.

What you've given an one organizations method for picking "good" stocks.
I don't see the "argument" in that, unless it is "SRI will do at least as well as
regular investing because we choose from the same pool of stocks."  And if
that's it, then I believe it is flawed.  If other organizations are paring down
the list using other measures that depend on performance expectations, then
filtering as above may be a competitive disadvantage.  (All else equal, of
course.  We can't be sure that either camp will actually realize their goals.)

-steve p.  (opinions mine, no warranty, standard disclaimers)
Newsgroups: misc.invest,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.bush
From: chbeck@anl.gov (Chuck Beck)
Subject: Re: ***BUY HARKEN ENERGY (HEC) NOW!!!!!
Followup-To: misc.invest
Organization: Argonne National Lab
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 19:24:02 GMT

I would like to point out some flaws in the following statements on HEC.

In article <1992Nov11.160813.27766@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu>, 13501TMC@MSU (Tim
Casey) wrote:
> 
> 
>      Harken energy just received drilling rights off the island of Bahrain off
> of the coast of Saudi Arabia.

The rights were granted Jan 30, 1990

> It is a relatively new company, but it has been a
> round since the Gulf War.

The company has been around for some time, at least the "mid 80's.

> The Bass family of Texas has provided the funding for
> the drilling of three wells only. The first well was dry, but the stock went
> from $3 to $8 with huge volume traded during several weeks prior to drilling.
> The stock dropped dramatically within one week after discovery that well #1 was
> dry.

The drilling started in Nov, 1991, after a few months of dredging.By Jan 23
1992, it was decided that "the Jurassic Arab formation is unlikely to
produce
oil or gas".

> They are due to drill again in eight weeks or less and anticipation is
> expected to be the same. This is the unique situation this stock offers. Three
> strikes and your'e out. The count is one and oh, and the batter could hit a
> run.
> 
>      If you watch this one close, you'll be ok. My broker has been to Harken
> conferences and has met the president. The stock is very low, so it can't fall
> very far; PLUS it has just acuired an exclusive six month contract to drill in
> natural gas rich Venezalia. Oh, I forgot to add, my broker has invested in this
> stock and so has a great majority of his clients. I would not let this oppor-
> tunity go. TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT THIS AND LOOK IN TO THIS STOCK. /tmc

Some of the most intersing information is, though, that "It is extremely
unusual
for a company this small to have a concession of this magnitued" Strain
said. "It's just amazing." There has been media speculation that Harken
might have
won the right to explore in Bahrain as a result of Bush being the
off-spring
of President Bush. At least one newspaper article implied that the Persian
Gulf War might have been fought in part to ensure that Harken could
peacefully
explore for oil in the Mideast.(of course) Harken officials and others 
familiar with the company say neither George W. Bush nor the Whitehouse 
had anything to do with (this obscure exploration company) Harken winning
these rights. George W. Bush (pres's son) owned 105,000 shares of the
company
and later sold them, I remember, without notifing the SEC right before some
really poor loss statements were released to the public, (Inside trading)
and could have been procecuted. (I guess status does have it's benefits)



These thoughts are only my own. CHBeck@anl.gov
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: tjochem@d3.ius.cs.cmu.edu (Todd Jochem)
Subject: Buying stock with a friend
Organization: CMU Vision and Autonomous Systems
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 16:26:51 GMT

A friend of mine and I are thinking about buying a stock togther but we have
some questions. He works at a financial service company which operates a 
brokerage house and can get really cheap commissions, the only thing is that the
purchase must be in his name. I don't mind if the stock is in his name but we are
concerned about how taxation will occur if we follow this course.

Does anyone have any suggestions about this situation??

Thanks,

--Todd
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: meyers@lorenz.ocean.fsu.edu (Steve Meyers)
Subject: DELL accused
Organization: Florida State University
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 14:24:09 GMT


What do people think of the allegations against Dell Comp. 
of financial misconduct? Are the accusations true? How much did their 
unusual accounting procedures affect their latest earnings 
report?

Thanks.

Steve
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: floydb@rpi.edu
Subject: Re: Writing options
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 16:31:17 GMT

In an example I gave I said there would be intrinsic value
on an call option with the strike price above the current
price, this is wrong (as was pointed out to me). the intrinsic
value could only be found for strike prices below the current
price.

Thus the call writer would write a $10 option on a $13 1/2
stock and get a minimum of $3 1/2 premium due to intrinsic
value. 

The point of the prior posting and its details remain the 
same (minus reference to intrinsic value). A $15 option could
still net a $2 1/2 premium, but this would be due entirely
to time-value and volatility of the underlying stock.

sorry for any possible confusion caused...

barry
From: snorthc@relay.nswc.navy.mil (Stephen Northcutt - K31)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: South Fla
Keywords: where do all the dollars go?
Date: 17 Nov 92 13:44:09 GMT
Reply-To: snorthc@relay.nswc.navy.mil
Distribution: usa
Organization: Naval Surface Warfare Center

When the hurricane decimated south Fla recently, I remember
seeing the pictures in the newspapers and all.  Then there was
the relief efforts. red cross, this or that church, and so forth
collecting blankets, food, and flashlights.  I also remember
Mr. Bush making this a disaster area or whatever and appropriating
some amount of money to fix things up.  Does anyone remember
how much?

I also remember, seeing the pictures of how the insurance adjusters
were spray painting data on the sides of the damaged homes.  And
some fairly large number of $$$ were going to be paid out by the
insurance company.  
And I remember that the price of building material esp. plywood
surged in my own area (VA).

So what?  Where is all this money going?  Say you bought a house
in FLA 5 years ago for $80K and a year ago it was supposedly
worth $120k and you have accumlated $30k or so of clothing, furniture,
and other junk and the hurricane blows the top off your house.
What happens to you financially?  It seems like you couldn't possibly
come out of this smelling like a rose, the question is how bad
to you get hurt.  And if this happens to you AND most of your
neighbors, what happens to this area of the country 1 year from
now and 5 years from now?

Jobs esp. in the construction industry are scarce right now and
a couple acquaintances of mine just went down to FLA where they
were told there is plenty of work.  They just called back.  One
of them is leaving to return home this morning.  They said that
there is no law and order down there, everyone lives and sleeps
by the shotgun.  Can this be?  They also said building material
is very scarce.  They describe the area as totally decimated and
out of control.  Is this true?  Do we have any net.readers who
live or have recently visited down there? 

So, all this money is earmarked for southern FLA.  Where does
it really go?  Does the place ever get rebuilt and back on its
feet?  When there are that many millions somebody is getting
rich, who is it?

Stephen
Newsgroups: misc.invest