HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: kenr@orleans.storage.tandem.com (Ken Rose)
Subject: Re: Can you fund an IRA with student loans
Reply-To: kenr@orleans.storage.tandem.com
Organization: Tandem Computers Inc.
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 18:36:37 GMT

In article GIF@vcd.hp.com, johne@PROBLEM_WITH_INEWS_GATEWAY_FILE (John Eaton) writes:
>Barry Margolin (barmar@think.com) wrote:
>: 
>: There are no special restrictions on the source of IRA money.  However,
>: some investment vehicles have restrictions on how much they can be
>: leveraged.
>: -- 
>Don't you have to have Earned Income to fund an IRA? Putting more into
>an IRA than shows on your W-2's is not allowed.
>
>John Eaton 
>!hp-vcd!johne
>
>

I finally remembered to bring a copy of IRS publication 590 (Individual
Retirement Arrangements) in to work, and it seems to back up John.

It states "You can contribute up to $2000 or 100% of your taxable compensation, 
whichever is less, to your IRA each year".

To get your own copy of this document, call the 800 number for IRS publications
found in your phone book, and ask for a copy of Publication 590.

Hope this helps,
  -- Ken
____________________________________________________________________
Ken Rose    (kenr@storage.tandem.com)
The Usual Disclaimer:  Any opinions expressed above are mine alone, not
those of my employer (who is kind enough to allow me Usenet access).

Newsgroups: misc.invest,misc.taxes
From: cli@netcom.com (Concurrent Logic Inc)
Subject: Quicken and Capital Gains
Followup-To: poster
Keywords: capital gains, taxes, quicken
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 01:12:25 GMT

I was playing with a friend's version of Quicken to see if it would be
useful for tracking investments after the current discussion of Quicken
vs MYM.  I tried to see how it handles the Capital Gains for Mutual Funds
and it looks as if it only calculates using the FIFO method.  We couldn't
find any other options to have it calculate differently.  Are we missing
something.  Yeah I know we should call Intuit Customer Service but we
haven't gotten around to it yet. So I was just wondering if any of you
knew the answer off-hand.

Thanks
Scott Evans
scott@clogic.com
From: hamachi@adobe.com (Gordon Hamachi)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Act Now to Fight the Deficit
Date: 26 Jan 93 23:11:44 GMT
Article-I.D.: adobe.1993Jan26.231144.12243
Distribution: usa
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated

Paul Guiguizian x79315/AT/2-49-KP writes
> 
> I beg to differ with you.
> 
> The real problems are located in Washington DC - those people with their
> hands on the purse strings who can't balance their checkbooks (much less
> our government's budget)!
>
> If the Congress could learn to say NO and we went to zero-based budgeting
> and the President had a line-item veto, and we eliminated double taxation
> of dividends and we eliminated taxation of inflation-generated capital
> gains, THEN THIS COUNTRY WOULD GROW LIKE GANGBUSTERS.

Is there a substantive difference here?  If you agree that there is a problem  
then I urge you to become part of the solution, by writing to the President and  
Congress, telling them what you want them to do about it, and demanding an  
answer.  If enough of us complain, we'll get action; otherwise, we'll get more  
of business as usual.

> The deficit is not a problem unless the rest of the world calls in our
> loans.

The deficit IS a problem NOW.

    It forces long term interest rates higher.  Mortgage rates are higher
    than they could be.  This is keeping a lid on the housing industry,
    slowing the rebound from recession.

    It competes with the private sector for capital.  Businesses are less
    competitive because they pay more for long term borrowing.

    It diverts a huge amount of taxes to debt service.  And it is going to
    cause your taxes to go up this year.

Call or write your politician:

     The Hon. (name)
     House Office Building
     Washington, DC 20515

     The Hon. (name)
     Senate Office Building
     Washington, DC 20510
	 
	 or call the main switchboard at the Capitol: 202/224-3121

     The President
     The White House
     Washington, DC 20500
	 
	 or call the main switchboard at the White House: 202/456-1414

Call or write for information:

     Citizens Against Government Waste
     1301 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
     Suite 400
     Washington, DC 20036
	 1-800/BE-ANGRY or 202/467-5300

     National Taxpayers Union
     325 Pennsylvania Avenue, S.E.
     Washington, DC 20003
	 202/543-1300

     Citizens for a Sound Economy
     470 L'Enfant Plaza, S.W.
     Suite 7112
     Washington, DC 20024
	 202/488-8200

     Americans for Tax Reform
     1301 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
     Suite 444
     Washington, DC 20036
	 202/785-0266

     United We Stand America
     PO Box 6
     Dallas TX 75221
	 1-800-925-4000
	 Annual membership is $15
	 
     The Concord Coalition
     5959 Triumph Street
     Commerce, CA   90040-1688
	 1-800-231-6800
	 Annual membership is $25
From: coop@sybase.com (John Cooper)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: IDEA
Date: 21 Jan 93 17:01:29 GMT
Organization: Sybase, Inc.

In article <1426500336@igc.apc.org> mcaldon@igc.apc.org (McAldon International Inc.) writes:
>
>Lots of folks are complaining, with good reason, about the need to 
>pay annual capital-gains taxes on mutual-fund distributions in taxable
>accounts.  How about using Berkshire-Hathaway (BRK-NYSE) in lieu of
>a fund?  Your manager will be the renowned Warren Buffet; the stock
>keeps hitting new highs and never makes any distributions.  Only
>inconvenience is it will cost about $12,000 a pop.


Do BRK shares trade easily in odd lots -- specifically, is it worthwhile to
buy a single share?  Since commissions tend to be tied to dollar volume rather
than number of shares, the only prohibition to buying one share of BRK would
seem to be finding a buyer later on.

(Our news server is very slow -- my apologies if this has already been answered
publicly before my post).

Thanks,
--
John Cooper                               | My opinions, may not be employer's.
Sybase, Inc.                              |
                                          | "If you don't like the news go out
sybase!coop@sun.com                       | and make some of your own."
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: hamachi@adobe.com (Gordon Hamachi)
Subject: Re: The End of the Bull Market
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 19:16:21 GMT

Norbert Schlenker writes
> For years, I've been warning readers of this newsgroup that the party
> just couldn't keep going much longer.  I believe that I must be one of
> the last bears here.  Chedley seems to have given up on short selling.
> Gordon Hamachi, having moved to another group, now posts a mix of
> articles not uniformly bearish.

Woah!  Don't mistake the real estate news for my own opinions.  All I've done  
is to report what I read about real estate in the business publications.  Since  
I find flame wars tedious and unpleasant, I prefer to share my own negative  
opinions on real estate by private mail.

As for the economy, I've read "Bankruptcy 1995: The Coming Collapse of America  
and How to Stop It" by Harry Figgie, and it scares the hell out of me.

--Gordon Hamachi
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: hari@uncc.edu (Yogeshwar Hari)
Subject: Re: Regal Communications
Reply-To: hari@uncc.edu
Organization: University of NC at Charlotte
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 00:54:57 GMT

I am an expert on regal communciations.  A while back I posted it as one of my picks.

It is a very good company.  I have followed them for a while and bought the stock
when it was just 3 3/8.  If anyone would like more info please send mail to me
at yhari@mosaic.uncc.edu.



Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: etpeters@dal.mobil.com (E. T. Peterson(Eric))
Subject: Re: Covered Calls:  Less Risk - High Returns.
Organization: Mobil Exploration & Producing Technical Center(MEPTEC), Dallas. 
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 21:29:12 GMT

In article <1993Jan22.191108.7080@bnr.ca>, bucknerb@bnr.ca (Brent Buckner) writes:
|> In article <1993Jan22.183018.10953@mobil.com> etpeters@dal.mobil.com (E. T. Peterson(Eric)) writes:
|> >Consider a covered put position:  short the stock at $40 and sell the $35 put
|> 
|> Aside:  doesn't a covered put position consist simply of having
|> an account balance sufficient to pay for the stock at the
|> price of the put?

That's right.  The original poster asked a question about shorting a stock
and selling a put on it.  For lack of a better term I referred to it as a
"covered put" position.  Guess that is not technically correct.

*********************************************************************
Eric Peterson                  The sooner you fall behind,
Research Geophysicist          the more time you'll have to catch up!
(214) 951-3251
etpeters@dal.mobil.com
*********************************************************************
From: johne@PROBLEM_WITH_INEWS_GATEWAY_FILE (John Eaton)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Question: Is the market predictable?
Date: 26 Jan 93 23:44:32 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard VCD
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

Babak Sehari (sehari@iastate.edu) wrote:
: 
: Therefore, to predict the market with %100 accuracy you need infinite number
: of variables. Nevertheless, with limited # of variable to consider, one should
: be able to predict the market with accuracy of more than %50 and less than
: %100.
: --------------------
Suppose you had an accurate computer model of market behavior as well as 
an accurate set of initial state variables and enough Teraflops to run the
simulation faster than the real thing. You could predict the market. The 
problem is that this simulation will contain a guess as to what all the
investors will be doing. That includes YOU!!! If you change your stategy
based on the simulation results then those results may no longer be valid.

As a small investor your actions will have little effect at first. The 
problem is as your model becomes better and your success grows then 
your actions will be noticed by other investors and they will modify
their actions. You will create a system that is stable as long as you
are not making money but will grow increasingly unstable the richer
you become. It is not clear that you would be able to profit from the
existance of such a predictor.

John Eaton
!hp-vcd!johne
From: kevinc@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca (Kevin Crocker)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Question: Is the market predictable?
Date: 21 Jan 93 04:41:27 GMT

sehari@iastate.edu (Babak Sehari) writes:

>Therefore, to predict the market with %100 accuracy you need infinite number
>of variables.  Nevertheless, with limited # of variable to consider, one should
>be able to predict the market with accuracy of more than %50 and less than
>%100.

You don't need to be 100% accurate to predict possible outcomes of a
random event. Isn't this wat major portions of statistics provides - a
methodology for testing "best-fit" (not necessarily LS etc) predictors.

KEvin
--
Kevin "autark" Crocker (Athabasca University)
kevinc@cs.AthabascaU.CA  -or-  risk@cs.AthabascaU.CA
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: jackson@mailhost.aa.cad.slb.com (Jeff Jackson)
Subject: IBM Dividend -- Speculation, please!
Organization: Applicon
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 16:26:34 GMT


    Well, IBM is scheduled to announce what it will do with its dividend
    next week (Jan. 26 is the actual date, I think).

    The stock price has been hovering around 46 1/2 for the last few
    days, but IBM option prices and open volume are way up.  Looks like
    a lot of people are "placing their bets."

    I'm going to stay away from the action myself but I'm interested to
    know what y'all think is going to happen.

        1) Will IBM cut its dividend?  If so, by how much?
        2) What effect will this action have on IBM share price?


    My own guesses:
        * IBM will cut its dividend by at least 50%.  I would not be
          surprised to see a 2/3 cut.
        * This cut will spur the institutions into selling blocks of
          IBM, which will temporarily drive down the share price to near 40,
          followed by a rebound as other investors snap up the cheap
          stock.

    Speculation, please!


-----------------------------------------------------------------
  - JWJ    "Ann Arbor people have money, but they don't like to spend it."
             - A Comfort Inn manager, on why the Berkshire Hilton failed 
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: mchen1@goofy.att.com (51411-M.CHEN(HOKE112)NONE )
Subject:  good book - was: Elliot wave analysis
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 22:43:31 GMT

A good book that describes periods of over-enthusiasm is, "Manias,
Panics, and Crashes," Revised Edition, by C. P. Kindleberger (Basic
Books, 1989).
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: gregf@eastrg1.cray.com (Greg Fairbrother)
Subject: Lotus macros for financial analysis
Organization: Cray Research, Inc.
Date: 26 Jan 93 16:00:36 CST

Does anyone have some Lotus macros that they would be willing to share to calculate
various mortgages (fixed, adjustable, closing costs,....)
thanks
Greg
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: ae557@yfn.ysu.edu (Ken Meinken)
Subject: Re: thanks
Organization: Youngstown State/Youngstown Free-Net
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 18:36:30 GMT


Glenn,

Nobody knows the answers as to the best time to invest.  "Wait until
the DOW goes under 3200?"  Well, ifit does, then it might keep going down...
or it might never get there.  

If you pick a mutual fund with a low minimum, you can put 20% in now, 
20% in another month or two, etc.   That way, if the market drops,
you can add your next 20% at a better price!

Remember, if everyone thinks the market is surely going up, then it is 
VERY dangerous.  Right now, most people are cautious, which is a pretty
good sign.  (But there are other signs too, not all of them good.  If you
wait for a "safe" time, you 'll never find it.  The most successful
investors (Buffett, Lynch, Gabelli, etc.) do not believe that the market
can be successfully timed in any consistent manner.

As for diversifying among different mutuals funds, I definitly say yes.
But it depends on what funds you select.  Much of my money is in agressive
funds and I divide it up.  That way, if one or two slip, it won't be a
major problem.  I don't believe in putting all my money on one or two
funds (although I think I have some good ones.)  Some people say that 
more than 10 funds is too much.  I disagree, although as I get more experience,
I may cut back.  But then, I may see some new ones that I want to try.

Ken
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: ask@cbnews.cb.att.com (Arthur S. Kamlet)
Subject: Re: NASDAQ brokers: Can they cheat on orders?
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories,  Columbus, Ohio
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 22:27:51 GMT
Keywords: NASDAQ

In article <1993Jan23.153309.1854@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> rvp2f@Virginia.EDU (Prasad  Polamraju) writes:
>Can a broker on a NASDAQ system cheat on a market/other orders? 
>I have a full  service brokerage
>account with a NASDAQ broker/market maker specializing in stocks
>priced $5 or below. This week he called me to ask my permission to sell a
>stock which has moved up by about 40% on 1000% increased volume. The day
>after he confirmed the sale, the stock moved up by another 40%. Is there 
>a possibility or chance for  cheating by NASDAQ brokers? Any insights and info 
>will be appreciated.

Well, I assume there are crooked brokers just as there are crooks in
all sorts of businesses.

Ordinarily, I would think if the broker was trying to boost the
price of a stock he would tell you the stock is moving up fast, and
you should buy more before you miss out on a cheap deal.  If he did
want you to sell the stock so he could get the fees, and if he really
thought it would move even higher, he would tell you that it moved
up but to hold out for some more movement, and sell it then at
higher commissions.

Now if you think he quoted you a false bid on the stock check to see
if the stock hit your bid that day.  If it did, you have no evidence
of fraud.

Now it's also possible someone was manipulating the price, and the
SEC sometimes looks into unusual stock movements, but from what you
have said, you haven't shown any proof.  This could easily be a case
where the price was running up and you sold out in the middle
instead of at the top.  What that means is you haven't learned how
to identify when a stock has hit its maximum, and you should also
keep your day job :^)
-- 
Art Kamlet  a_s_kamlet@att.com  AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: jhsu@eng-nxt03.cso.uiuc.edu (Jason Hsu)
Subject: Re: Bears vs Bulls
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 21:40:59 GMT

In article <4250056@hpcc01.corp.hp.com> quan@hpcc01.corp.hp.com (Suu Quan)  
writes:
> Would someone explain the meaning of "Bull" & "Bear" in this (financial)  
context
> please.
A bull expects a stock or the stock market to rise in value.  A bear  
expects a stock or the stock market to decline in value.
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: pearson@tsd.arlut.utexas.edu (N. Shirlene Pearson)
Subject: Re: education of floor traders
Organization: Applied Research Labs, University of Texas at Austin
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 20:13:56 GMT

rs69@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Rong Shen) writes:

>Hi:

>	The greatest gift that evolution has given to men is the
>ability to question. So, here is the question: What type of education
>and work experience does a typical floor traders in NY Stock Exchange
>have?

You might also query as to the average career time of floor traders.
I've heard (and this may just be rumor) that it's like pro-ball ...
big money but short career time because of the stress, strain,
and physical stamina required to do the job well.

N. Shirlene Pearson
pearson@titan.tsd.arlut.utexas.edu
From: glenne@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Neuromancer )
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: eliminate the broker for mutual funds?
Date: 22 Jan 1993 19:47:07 GMT
Organization: Computing Services Division, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: 129.89.7.4
Originator: glenne@csd4.csd.uwm.edu

I would like to invest $2000 in a no load mutual fund.   I want
to invest in such a manner so as to maximize the percentage of
my money that goes toward the investment and minimize the amount
of money that goes to paying miscellaneous fees.
 
I am seriously considering eliminating the broker altogether,
and simply investing directly with the mutual fund.  Would this
hinder my ability to deposit additional smaller amounts into the
fund on a monthly or occasional basis?   Are there any other
possible disadvantages to eliminating the broker that I should be
aware of?
 
Also on the fund I was looking at, it stated something about
4% going to the fund and another 4% to the broker. Are both
these percentages typical for mutual funds?  Does this mean
whether I have a broker or not, the amount of my money that
goes directly to the investment is the same?  Is this true
for only some funds?
 
Put it this way, if I invest $1000 in a no load mutual fund,
what is the most of that $1000 I can reasonably expect to go
directly toward my investment? $920?  Does eliminating the
broker increase that amount?  Are there any disadvantages to
eliminating the broker?
 
Glenn                                  glenne@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
From: tshannon@krakatoa.bbn.com (Tod Shannon)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re BBN
Date: 27 Jan 93 00:05:49 GMT
Reply-To: tshannon@bbn.com
Organization: BBN Advanced Simulation, Cambridge, MA, USA.
NNTP-Posting-Host: krakatoa.bbn.com


 

I guess it just goes to show you that you can't believe everything that
you read.

BBN was started back in 1948 by a couple of PhD's (Dick Bolt and Leo Beranek)
to do business in the then new field of acoustics (or should I say then
non-existent field of acoustics?).

Some of the more well-known work they did was acoustics work for the United
Nations General Assembly Hall and Carnegie Hall.  They later hired on
a grad student named Newman (can't remember his first name) and started
BBN.

The company is a diversified high-tech company.  The ARPAnet (the original
one contracted out by ARPA in like 1969 or so) was designed and built by BBN.
Willie Crowther (that guy who wrote the first adventure game, Adventure) works
here.  

BBN is best known for its acoustics and networking technologies (a lot of 
stuff for the Navy - Shhhh! you're not supposed to know that!); the first
commercial packet switch network, Tymenet (?) or was it Telenet, was started
by BBN and then sold off.  

The company has primarily done work from a contract basis as opposed to a
more commercial product orientation (although that has slowly been changing,
with debatable results).  The past several years haven't been kind with
growing competition for defense contracting dollars squeezing traditional
markets.

BBN has also been involved in distributed simulation and graphics (oh, I
guess the buzzword for that now is Virtual Reality) with over 200 systems
in the field.

BBN used to be trying to get into the massive parallel world, but that
didn't pan out so well, although some effort is still in this area.

The company is about a $260 million revenues.  Recently announced suspension
of a .06 dividend, and expects some significant losses this fiscal year
due to "continued investment in future products."  The company spends something
like 25-30 million on R&D.

In many ways a pretty cool place to work, I must say.

Why did the stock go up to 6 1/8?  I certainly have no idea.

							-Tod Shannon
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: stgprao@st.unocal.COM (Richard Ottolini)
Subject: Re: Income tax ?
Organization: Unocal Corporation
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 21:57:21 GMT

In article <Jan.26.09.38.52.1993.14618@presto.ig.com> stuczyns@presto.ig.com (Martin Stuczynski) writes:
>
> Can I deduct medical/dental expenses (not covered by insurance) from my
>taxable income?

If more than @7% and you itemize.  See Schedule A.

Some companies allow employees to particpate in a pretax medical deduction
plan.  You can set aside a certain amount in a reserve to pay for costs.
The reserve is not taxed, so in may case I save 45%.
However, any surplus in the reserve cannot be given to the employee, nor
transferred in future years in my company.
I use this to pay for medical and dental insurance.  If I was smarter, I'd
also set aside my average yearly dental costs too.  If one has
periodic medical costs (e.g. sick children) or anticipates future
expenses (e.g pregnancy, elective procedures) then one can set aside
that too.  We can alter the deduction rate once a year in our plan.
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: cheryl@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (cheryl.rothlisberger)
Subject: Vista Capital Growth
Keywords: # & advice needed
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 14:15:50 GMT

Hello!

Do you have any experience with the mutual fund Vista Capital Growth? I 
haven't tracked it for very long, but it seems to do very well.  The 
Mutual Fund Forecaster doesn't  follow this one.  Also, I'd like to call for
a prospectus, but I need the phone number.  Can you help?

Thanks in advance,

Cheryl