HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ask@cbnews.cb.att.com (Arthur S. Kamlet)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: MRK (Merck) - Stock Split scheduled to
Date: 13 Apr 92 23:03:06 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories,  Columbus, Ohio

In article <kuk3mcINN2fo@jethro.Corp.Sun.COM> brian@baja.Corp.Sun.COM writes:
>What is the advantage to buying Merck stock before the split?
>Do most stocks go up after a split??  Or is it better to
>buy after the split?

1) Some brokers will charge less commission for the same $
   transaction before the split than after.

2) If you want to end up with, e.g., 100 shares of MRK - perhaps so
   you can write the options??, then it's easier to do so after the
   split.o

   The trouble with a 3 for 1 split of such a high priced stock
   is you can't buy 34 without having 2 extra shares later on.
   Of course if you can afford to buy 100 pre-split, please ignore
   this item.

3) If you believe in the good fairy, then you can rest assured the
   price will be relatively higher after the split than before.
   Or not.
-- 
Art Kamlet  a_s_kamlet@att.com  AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: prabhak@cs.umn.edu (Satya Prabhakar)
Subject: Re: So-called Experts and Timing ( Re: Time to invest in Japan Fund??)
Organization: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, CSci dept.
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 09:38:50 GMT

>An article I read says that about half the time, putting all the money
>in a certain stock at a randomly selected time beats averaging down. 
>Martin Zweig doesn't like it either, because he disdains buying into
>weakness.
>
>Winston Chang		    "Truth is beauty, beauty truth;

All of a sudden everyone has concluded that I am 'averaging down.'
Perhaps I am lacking the prescience to see where Nikkei will
bottom out, that everyone else has.

Well, even I disdain buying into weakness! It so happens that I d
cannot a bottom when it comes to me and says, "Howdy! Nice weather, ha?"
Many investment strategists misook the intermediate consolidation of 
Nikkei in 1990 as a bottom. Much of the foreign money that flowed
into Tokyo did so in 1990 based on the advice of 'professionals.'

These days one can find an 'article' supporting just about any
theory. Yesterday someone showed me an article that said database
technology will be rendered irrelevant in a networked environment.
I believe 'data will flow like electricity.' The best thing to do
is to ignore them. It has been universally accepted that diversification
reduces risk. No point arguing that any further.

Satya Prabhakar
From: shekita@yeti.almaden.ibm.com (E. Shekita)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Rudman on the federal debt
Date: 8 Apr 92 16:20:49 GMT

>NY Gov. Mario Cuomo was on one of the network talk shows (Meet the
>Press?) Sunday, and was asked about this.  He replied that at the
>state level, governors *have* been forced to actually cut back on
>entitlements in recent years...
>
>One reason it's harder to make the case for cutbacks at the national
>level, of course, is that the money supply is really controlled by the
>Fed, not by the President or Congress...

The money supply affects interest rates, not the deficit (at least
in any direct way).

The main difference between Washington and most state governments is that
Washington is allowed to run in the red, whereas a balanced budget
is required in the states.

Critics argue that a constitutional ammendment for a balanced budget 
is too inflexible. Maybe so, but I think its time has come. The 
current system clearly isn't working anymore.

Gene
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: kanth@andersen.uucp (Kanth Miriyala)
Subject: Re: Stocks newsletter. Netletter!
Organization: Andersen Consulting
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 11:58:13 GMT


As some people have expressed interest in PRAGATI and 
wished to receive forthcoming issues by email, we are 
compiling a mailing list. If you are interested please
send email with email address at which you would like 
to receive PRAGATI the newsletter for low price, high 
growth potential stocks. In the title of your message 
just say PRAGATI.

Thanks.

The Miriyalas
From: chenl@cbnewse.cb.att.com (julian.l.chen)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: correction is nigh
Date: 10 Apr 92 17:06:40 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: AT&T

>>hello folks,
>>   AS you are all aware, the market has seen a big decline over the past two 
>>days. The big question is, is this the market correction we have all been 
>>expecting, or is it just an indicator of edgyness out there? This 
>>"correction" wa only about 4%.....seems like either a really small
>>correction or a relly big tantrum!

The broad maket has been down much more than 4% than the DOW. Just look
at some of the high tech stocks that favored by many people in the
net.

>
>>What are your thoughts?  Also, what would a true contarian do at this time?

Why you want to care about what a true contarian will do ? A true contarian
will rob the bank since most poeple won't. Do you plan to participate ?
Seriously, a true contarian would do quite poorly in the stock market.
Since the trend may be wrong during the beginging and ending of each
bull/bear cycle, but the most other time the trend was/is/will be right.
Don't fight the trend, don't fight the tape and don't fight the Fed.

>I have said since February and reiterated in March,
>
>We shall see 3130 before we see 3370.  Yesterday we got down to 3141.
>So far, I don't think it's been any big deal.
>
>Jimmy Kuo

Are you saying this seriously ? What is the difference between 3130 and
3141 other than 10 points? That is only 0.35% difference. If you can predict
the market at that precision scale, you should be billionaire anythime soon
if you are not now.

Julian Chen
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: mlim@cbnewsk.cb.att.com (michelle.lim)
Subject: Home Mortgage loan question
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: bl
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 21:03:20 GMT


When picking up a home mortgage loan, I found that for e.g., 
the difference in total interest paid between a 10 year and 15 year
loan is about $25,000.  Given that I can afford the monthly payments on
a 10 year loan, should I be considering any other factors besides the
total interest paid?  (Taxes, other investment opportunities etc?)

Any advice is welcome!

Michelle
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: cjkuo@locus.com (Chengi Jimmy Kuo)
Subject: Re: correction is nigh
Organization: Locus Computing Corporation, Los Angeles, California
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 19:17:26 GMT

chenl@cbnewse.cb.att.com (julian.l.chen) writes:

>>I have said since February and reiterated in March,
>>
>>We shall see 3130 before we see 3370.  Yesterday we got down to 3141.
>>So far, I don't think it's been any big deal.
>>
>>Jimmy Kuo

>Are you saying this seriously ? What is the difference between 3130 and
>3141 other than 10 points? That is only 0.35% difference. If you can predict
>the market at that precision scale, you should be billionaire anythime soon
>if you are not now.

You probably didn't see my posts in Feb or March when I explained the numbers.
The 3130 is based on "within 1% of 3100".  3100 is a rounded number based on
an upmoving trend line (so by now it's more than 3100, but still close).
3370 is based on within 1% of 3340.  3340 is a rounded number based on the
percentage move from roughly 2850->3100->3340.  Furthermore, these numbers
are intra-day highs/lows for which I gave definitions then also.

So, I believe that 3141 is "close enough" to a 3130 prediction based on those
calculations, made back in February.  The underlying message behind my post
was that it's not surprising.  With enough technical analysts around, they
would have been likely to sell any time it reached near high 3200's because
the DOW hadn't come back down to 3100 yet.  Only after the DOW has come back
to 3100 would there be any real chance of an upsurge that would knock out the
resistance level in the low 3300s.

As for the billionaire business, I'm a little tired of people jumping on
others all the time around here.  "If you were so good..."  I never said I
was so good.  I just said the correction wasn't a big deal and the
last two days have supported that.  Further, you need millions to make
billions and I'm no where near.  So cut that out.

Last time I "bet" on the DOW (beginning of 92), I got the DOW movement
correct but I chose Disney to represent the DOW.  My Disney puts lost lots
of money.  It's one thing to get DOW predictions correct.  It's another
thing altogether to use that information to make money.

Happy?

Jimmy Kuo

PS.  I don't know if I'll have access to newsgroups after next week when
I switch jobs.  I have appreciated reading some of the posts here and I
hope my answering of technical questions about the market has been helpful
to others to understand the mechanics of the market.
-- 
cjkuo@locus.com
"The correct answer to an either/or question is both!"
From: timlee@public.btr.com
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Wrap Account
Date: 13 Apr 92 04:15:26 GMT
Reply-To: timlee@btr.com (Timothy J. Lee)
Followup-To: misc.invest
Distribution: usa

pmd@koa.cs.Virginia.EDU (Phil Dickens) writes:
|I have a question about Wrap accounts. My broker at Merril Lynch
|is pushing very hard to get me into a Wrap account. In this 
|program one of ML's hand picked money managers would manage the
|account and charge 3% of assets per year. There are no
|commission charges. Any opinions out there on this deal?

The disadvantage of a wrap account is that it is more expensive
than a mutual fund.  Whereas you can buy good mutual funds with
no load or commission and annual expenses of 0.20% to 1.00% per
year, even a discounted wrap account will probably be 2.00% per
year at least (in some articles about wrap accounts, they say
that you should look for a discount instead of paying full price).
Some of the extra expenses no doubt pays commissions to the broker.

In addition, mutual funds are reviewed by dozens of books,
newsletters, and magazine special issues, while it may
not be as easy to get independent information on the risk and
return records of Merrill Lynch's hand picked money managers.
From: jprice@eecs.cs.pdx.edu (James Price)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: mutual fund indices?
Date: 12 Apr 92 16:51:41 GMT
Article-I.D.: pdxgate.5309
Organization: Portland State University, Portland, OR

In article <6257@public.BTR.COM> timlee@btr.com (Timothy J. Lee) writes:
>met@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu writes:
>|Since I realized that firm-specific data about mutual fund performances
>|were so infrequent (annual, bi-annual, or at the most quarterly) I 
>|started wondering whether there are any indices for mutual funds which
>|are quoted on a more regular basis.
>
>There is a Lipper Mutual Fund Averages table in Barron's, after the
>open end mutual fund price listings.

 Also, in the Investors Business Daily they have a running mutual fund index,
along the lines of the DJIA. Its been awhile since I checked but I think 
it is composed of 20 funds, and is plotted daily in the paper.

 The indices in Barron's are very useful and informative; the Investors'
Business Daily's provides daily stats, whereas Barron's doesn't. Use both.

James
Net: jprice@jove.cs.pdx.edu       "Justice is incidental to law and order."
Globe: 45 31 25 N 122 40 30 W                          - J. Edgar Hoover
Unity not uniformity | NBC = GE   "Reading musses up my mind." - Henry Ford
From: petri@venus.iucf.indiana.edu (HOWARD PETRI)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Yeeee Hiiiiiiiii
Date: 12 Apr 92 02:14:45 GMT
Article-I.D.: bronze.1992Apr12.021756.10058
Reply-To: petri@venus.iucf.indiana.edu
Distribution: usa
Organization: INDIANA UNIVERSITY CYCLOTRON FACILITY
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4

In article <5304@pdxgate.UUCP>, jprice@eecs.cs.pdx.edu (James Price) writes...
>rjc@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (robert.cook) writes:
> 
>>This market kind of reminds me of a movie (WWII) where they're dropping "THE
>>BOMB" and the boomer won't be able to clear the area.  So Slim Pickens, I
>>believe, rides the baby down. 
> 
>>Robert
> 
>  I believe the movie you are thinking of is _Dr. Strangelove, Or how i
>learned to stop worrying and love the bomb_.
> 
>James

     Nope; the movie you are thinking of is Fail Safe.

Howard
From: lib@cbnews.cb.att.com (Lib)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Stocks newsletter. Netletter!
Date: 7 Apr 92 19:05:30 GMT
Organization: AT&T

In article <1992Apr7.183813.29626@cs.umn.edu> prabhak@cs.umn.edu (Satya Prabhakar) writes:
>
>have done much worse than stcking with an S&P 500 index fund. When
>Dr. Zweig says he did extremely well he doesn't account for the
>exorbitant fees poor mortals like you and I have to pay. What you see
>is not what you get!
   
You are making all that up. Hulbert takes
commissions into account when he tracks people.
You do not have to  take Zweig's word for anything.
  
>>They recommended three stocks. If they do that every month one
>>can spread the risk out.
>
>Unsystematic risk is not eliminated with 3 stocks. It takes
   
Buy three a  month over a period of time.
   
>>Discount brokers cut it to 1-2%.
>>  
>
>Did you consider the overriding minimum commission they
>mention in fine print.
  
Yes. Again you do not know what you are talking about.
  
>I am with you on that. It makes enjoyable reading but not sensible 
>investing. Small investors cannot hope to beat the market by
>sticking with individual stocks!
   
Ditto.
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: ecstasy@blackmagic (Steve Munt)
Subject: Re: more Options questions
Organization: TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, CA
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 92 23:36:16 GMT

In article <1992Apr7.212520.14547@gumby.dsd.trw.com> suhre@meltami.dsd.trw.com  
(Maurice E. Suhre) writes:
> In article <1992Apr7.020152.27052@oakhill.sps.mot.com> quangl@tabasco.UUCP  
(Quang Le) writes:
> >
> >I would like to have a second opinion on holding a call at expiration.
> >
> >Assume that I buy  a call of MSFT April 130 and keep it until April 30, 1992
> >MSFT is only 120 and there is no market to sell my option even
> >with 1 bilionth of a dollar. Do I have an obligation to buy 100
> >shares of MSFT at 130? 
> 
> No.  The ownership of the option means that *you* have the option to
> exercise it.  If it isn't profitable to exercise or if there is no
> market to sell it, then you just let it expire worthless.
> -- 
> Maurice Suhre
> suhre@trwrb.dsd.trw.com

In any event, the option has already expired by April 30.  Options expire the  
Saturday following the third friday of the month.  Last chance to exercise is  
on the third friday.
From: sdl@linus.mitre.org (Steven D. Litvintchouk)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: correction is nigh
Date: 10 Apr 92 18:13:37 GMT
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA


In article <34128@unix.SRI.COM> Ari_Kornfeld@QM.SRI.COM (Ari Kornfeld) writes:

> A true contrarian would invest in CDs since that's what everyone is
> getting out of.  :-)

As a true contrarian, I have invested in Lexington GoldFund (a mutual
fund that invests in gold bullion and gold stocks).  When gold prices
dropped, and everyone started saying that we were in a deflation, is
when I started investing.



--
Steven Litvintchouk
MITRE Corporation
Burlington Road
Bedford, MA  01730

Fone:  (617)271-7753
ARPA:  sdl@mitre.org
UUCP:  linus!sdl
	"Where does he get those wonderful toys?"
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: chandrab@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (b.chandramouli)
Subject: Re: Correction is now
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 23:29:39 GMT

In article <rvou8INN8vc@network.ucsd.edu> reg@sdchemw2.ucsd.edu (Richard E. Gillilan) writes:

>I understand that Fidelity now allows short selling for several of its
>sector funds, does anyone know the details? might be a good time to try
>it out.
>----------------------
>Richard Gillilan, UCSD

	I just talked to Fidelity and they confirmed to me that they
do allow short selling of some of their (10 or so) Select 
funds (sector funds).  Select BioTech is one of them.

	It is offered by their Brokerage Services department. The
commission scheudle for short sales of these mutual funds is same as 
their stock commision schedule.

chandra
att!acpfs!chandra
From: prabhak@cs.umn.edu (Satya Prabhakar)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Stocks newsletter. Netletter!
Date: 7 Apr 92 16:50:31 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.1992Apr7.165031.13160
Organization: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, CSci dept.

(Kanth Miriyala) writes:
>
>PRAGATI is a newsletter that recommends low-price stocks. 
>The basic philosophy that we use is based on the 
>strategies described in Bill Mathews's book, WINNING 
>BIG WITH BARGAIN STOCKS.
>
>We have been investing for some time and have been 
>successful in recommending some good stocks to 
>ourselves. We thought it might be a good idea to 
>pass this information along to others. Hence we 
>decided to start this newsletter. This newsletter
>should appear about once a month from now on.
>

I don't mean to offend my countryman, but I think your
posting should have included the following caveats:

   1. It has been proved that no one can consistently
      beat the market. Period. Most often they fail 
      miserably.

   2. There are two risks in investing in equity 
      markets: systematic risks and unsystematic 
      risks. By investing in a basket of stocks, i.e.,
      a mutual fund, the common man can eliminate
      the unsystematic risk.

   3. It doesn't make sense to invest all your money
      in one stock at one time. The proven way is to
      dollar-cost average. No question about that!

      But, aye, there's the rub. If you dollar-cost
       average, the commisions will squeeze you dry.

In my opinion, buying individual stocks is absolutely
stupid unless you are so rich that you can buy a 
coupla thousand shares and buy a basket of stocks. The
turnaround commission on an average trade is about 4-5%.

While it may be a good ego trip to recommend stocks and
watch them scale heights (about half the time), I think
it doesn't make financial sense to use the advice for
investing your fortunes.

Satya prabhakar (satya@ssdc.honeywell.com)
From: jschwarz@lonestar.utsa.edu (Jan A. Schwarz)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: 50% Off Stores
Date: 8 Apr 92 19:09:29 GMT
Organization: University of Texas at San Antonio


  Does anyone have any information on the 50% Off stores?

  It has gone from 31 down to 17!  Can't figure out what's wrong.


--
From: jprice@eecs.cs.pdx.edu (James Price)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Little Dollars to Invest...
Date: 5 Apr 92 14:54:05 GMT
Article-I.D.: pdxgate.5251
Organization: Portland State University, Portland, OR

In article <1992Apr3.163446.13448@craycos.com> jrbd@craycos.com (James Davies) writes:
>In article <mah2.702286826@Isis.MsState.Edu> mah2@ra.msstate.edu (Michael Andrew Hodges) writes:
>>If a guy had about a hundred dollars a month to invest in something
>>for his future after he got out of college and had a family, What
>>would he best invest in? In this type of market? 
>
>You couldn't possible invest in individual stocks at this level (the commisions
>would exceed your investment amount).  Mutual funds tend to have minimums, too.
>
>Your choices are probably either CDs or lottery tickets, depending on your
>personal risk threshold :-)
>
>If you take the CD route, you should be able to shift to something with
>a larger (but still reasonable :-) risk after a year or so.


   I think that $100/month investor would have one heck of an easier
time with mutual funds than CDs. Many funds open at $100-250 and a
very few have no minimum (20th Century for example). And they majority
of funds allow secondary investments of just $25-50 or more. The
difference between interest rates for $100 CDs (are there such things?) and
mutual fund returns is something to take into consideration.

James


Net: jprice@jove.cs.pdx.edu       "Justice is incidental to law and order."
Globe: 45 31 25 N 122 40 30 W                          - J. Edgar Hoover
Unity not uniformity | NBC = GE   "Reading musses up my mind." - Henry Ford
From: mack@anasaz (David MacKnight)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Excellent Mutual Fund Newsletter
Keywords: Mutual Fund
Date: 16 Apr 92 15:19:12 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Anasazi, Inc. Phoenix, AZ, USA

For those of you interested in long or short term trading of mutual funds,
I recommend a subscription to the Mutual Fund Forcaster.  Information contained
is broken down into various risk catagories with monthly updates as to
which funds to buy, sell, hold, or avoid.  I have had excellent returns 
using a very conservative approach.  The yearly subscription cost is less
than Money magazine and well worth it.

                   Mutual Fund Forcaster
                   Published by:
                   The Institute for Econometric Research
                   3471 N. Federal
                   Fort Lauderdale, FL  33306
                   (800) 442-9000

Dave
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: steve@fantasia.webo.dg.com (Steve Cairns)
Subject: Seek advice on GNMA bond funds
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 92 17:09:24 GMT
Organization: Data General Corporation, Westboro, Ma.
Followup-To: steve@fantasia.webo.dg.com

   I am looking at various GNMA bond funds for long term investment (5+ years)
and would like to know what particular features of them are important when 
comparing to each other as well as other type of bond funds.  I am considering
no load funds from Dreyfus, Fidelity, T.Rowe Price, Scudder and Vanguard.  
Scudder's current yield is the highest of the bunch (8.6% approx.), but their
annual expenses are high (1%).  Vanguard's GNMA is huge compared to the others,
has a very low annual expense of .2% and a middle of the road yield of 8.1%.
Is Vanguard's size a plus or a minus ?  Would one expect Scudder's expenses to come
down ?  Or is all this nitpicking on details about these big fund houses just a 
waste of time ?
   I beginning to think that I want to choose a company that has a lot of funds
of all types and makes it easy to move from one to the other as market conditions
change.  
   Comments to steve@fantasia.webo.dg.com
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: eric@tfs.com (Eric Smith)
Subject: Re: Is IBM stock worth buying?
Organization: TFS
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 13:11:31 GMT

In article <1992Apr13.135534.7446@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> pjl2@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Paul J Landsberg) writes:
>by any other name, simply getting corporate approval for the term
>"fundametal reform" can take 6 months to a year.

That's actually pretty fast.  I personally would take 3 to 5 years to
approve a word like "fundametal".  But after I finally approve it, I
think I might like it.  It has a nice ring.
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: sdl@linus.mitre.org (Steven D. Litvintchouk)
Subject: Re: Tax-free bond funds
Followup-To: steve@fantasia.webo.dg.com
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, MA
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 17:49:07 GMT


In article <1992Apr6.155826.10054@webo.dg.com> steve@fantasia.webo.dg.com (Steve Cairns) writes:

>    I am thinking about investing in tax free bond funds.  Scudder's MASS.
> Tax-Free fund looks very attractive paying 6.45%.  Can anyone offer comments
> on the down-side risk here ?  I'd be in for long term (5+ years).

The obvious problem is that the value of the shares may drop as
interest rates rise over the next year or two.  Now, Massachusetts'
muni bonds currently have among the highest yields of all muni bonds
in the country (for obvious reasons).  This may keep the yields from
rising much further (and thus keep the value of the shares from
dropping much further) as interest rates rise generally.



--
Steven Litvintchouk
MITRE Corporation
Burlington Road
Bedford, MA  01730

Fone:  (617)271-7753
ARPA:  sdl@mitre.org
UUCP:  linus!sdl
	"Where does he get those wonderful toys?"
Newsgroups: misc.invest