HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: daniel@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Daniel Krulewitch)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: more options question
Date: 16 Apr 92 00:05:50 GMT
Article-I.D.: hpfcso.8190062
Organization: an elevation of 4984 feet

john ogilvie 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?
> 
> DK>No.  Options give you the right BUT not the obligation to purchase the
> DK>underlying security
> 
> 
>      If you let an option expire that is more than $1 in the money, you WILL
>      get exercised.  It HAPPENED TO ME!

In the MSFT example the option is out of the money and will expire worthless
because is has no intrinsic value.

dnk
From: rlcarr@athena.mit.edu (Richard L. Carreiro)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: feasibility and costs and methods of transfer
Date: 15 Apr 92 01:02:12 GMT
Organization: Digitopolitan Embassy to the US

Me and some friends would like to buy some shares of the Celtics
(BOS: NYSE) to have as souvenirs.  Now, we could of course just
each buy shares, but the commissions would be an insane percentage
for such small orders.

So, couyld we pool our money, have one person buy a block of shares,
and then sell shares to the rest of us?  How would the transfer from
him to us be done?  How is it handled for tax purposes?  Will transfer
agents charge for such things?  How much?  When trhe person doing the
initial buy takes delivery from his broker, what if he gets a single
certificate for 50 shares --- how can he transfer say, only 20 shares
and keep 30 for himself?  WIll transfer agents "split" a certificate?
Or can he tell his broker what "denominations" to register the shares in 
when he takes delivery?

Or would it just be easier for us all to grit our teeth and pay the commissions?


--
Rich Carreiro                                    "My country, right or wrong,"
ARPA: rlcarr@athena.mit.edu                                is like
UUCP: ...!mit-eddie!mit-athena!rlcarr            "My driver, sober or drunk."
BITNET: rlcarr@athena.mit.edu      JITTLOV FOREVER!
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: kandappan@asic.dec.com (K. Parthiban)
Subject: RE: Anti-cancer drug, et al
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: 16 APR 92 22:57:27    

Apropos the query related to a 'new' drug being tested for cancer
treatment, etc....

I believe you are referring to TAXOL; this chemical is extracted from the
bark of the Yew [sp?] tree. Since the tree is in short supply and the demand
promises to rise sharply, there have been various attempts to synthesis
it.

One succesful method, apparently engineered by a small [CA based?] co is
to extract one half of the chemical chain from the needles/leaves of the
tree; this reduces the amount of extract required to make the drug.

A French company is claiming that it has synthesised a similar drug that
is more soluble, more effective, blah blah blah.

Apologies for not being more specific.

-parthi 
K.Parthiban	pkandappan@voyagr.dec.com
                    --or--  ...!decwrl!voyagr.dec.com!pkandappan
                    --or--  pkandappan%voyagr.dec@decwrl.dec.com
From: marvinm@catman.TTI.COM (Marvin Moskowitz)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Computation of cost basis for shares.
Keywords: Mutual fund, Average cost basis, single_category
Date: 14 Apr 92 23:13:23 GMT
Reply-To: marvinm@ttidca.tti.com
Distribution: usa
Organization: Three Blind CATs

In article <1992Apr13.153857.9319@unx.sas.com>, sassnm@unx.sas.com
(Sanjay Matange) writes:
% There is a detail about computing the Average cost basis for shares of a
% mutual find that has me confused.  I am hoping that some one of you
% misc.invest "gurus" can clear it for me.
%
% I have bought and sold over the past year some shares in a mutual fund.  I am
% trying to compute the gain/loss for each sell transaction.  I am using the
% method of Average basis using the Single_category method, as per pub. 564 of
% IRS.  I am confused about a detail about computation of the basis
AFTER a sale.
% Consider the following scenerio:
%
% Date   Buy/Sell   # of sh   cost/sh   cost  Total shares   Total cost   Basis
% --------------------------------------------------------------------------
% 6-1-91  BUY        10       3.5      35.0       10          35.00       3.50
% 7-1-91  BUY        10       4.0      40.0       20          75.00       3.75
% 8-1-91  BUY        20       4.5      90.0       40         165.00       4.125
% 9-1-91  SELL       15       5.0
% 10-1-91 BUY        10       4.5      45.0
% 11-1-91 SELL       20       5.0
%
% I understand that for the SELL of 9-1-91, the average basis cost of the
% shares sold is $4.125 per share.  However, how is the basis computed after
% a sale has been done.  In other words, what is the cost basis for the
% shares sold on 11-1-91?
%
Seems pretty straightforward to me.
After the 9/1 sale you have 25 shares (40 - 15) whose average cost is 4.125
which means total cost for shares outstanding is 103.125 .
(The taxable event is 15 shares @ (5 - 4.125) =13.1250 )
On 10/1 your basis is increased 45 to 148.125 with an average cost of
4.2321 for the 35 shares outstanding. The 20 shares sold on 11/1 have
a profit of 20 * (5 - 4.2321) = 15.3571 but 15.36 is close enough for
govt. work
*Marvin S. Moskowitz              __o                                      *
*Citicorp/TTI                    -\<,        Path:marvinm@ttidca.tti.com   *
*3100 Ocean Park Blvd.     ......O/ O                                      *
*Santa Monica, CA  90405                (310) 450 9111 x3197               *
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: met@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu
Subject: Re: index futures
Reply-To: met@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu
Organization: Computer Center, CUNY Graduate School, New York NY 10036
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 17:01:40 GMT

Hi, misc.investors!
I realized that I did not make myself clear when I was asking that
question about index futures....
What I would like to know is NOT which three companies have the largest
volume of trading of these contracts, BUT, what I would like to know is:
If we want to make a generalization about the professional distribution
of hedgers in these markets, what could we say , say about the percentage
participation of pension funds, mutual funds, etc...
In other words, for example, can we say that 40-50% of all tha hedging
activity is done by pension funds in index  futures markets?
Thanks, again!
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: dlw@odi.com (Dan Weinreb)
Subject: Re: Government Deficit
Reply-To: dlw@odi.com
Organization: Object Design, Inc.
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 92 19:33:14 GMT

In article <b_kjdya.mbk@netcom.com> mbk@netcom.com (Miles Kehoe) writes:

   The REAL 'entirelent' expenses also include 'welfare' - which says
   that its OK to not wor you get your 'entitlements' - in fact, you
   get MORE 'entitlement money' if you have more kids. Whopee. Let's
   start by changing the names... 'entitlements' = 'welfare'.

You can play word games all you want, but don't expect to attempt to
communicate with other serious adults in your own make-up language.
The terms "entitlements" and "welfare" have well-defined meanings in
American public life.  Welfare programs are part of discretionary
spending, not part of entitlement spending.  To put it another
way, the legislature could reduce or cut welfare any year they
want to, and if the President had a line-item veto, he could veto
it.  Not so for entitlements (nor the interest on the Federal debt).

Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: gary@intrepid.intrepid.com (Gary Funck)
Subject: MIPS and SGI price discrpency (correction)
Organization: Intrepid Technology, Inc.
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 07:04:38 GMT


There was an error in my previous posting.  The number of shares
in the merged company was understated as 57 million.  The number
of new shares should be 59.4 million.  This correction leads to
a smaller value for estimating the price of the new company:

                        MIPS     SGI  SGI+MIPS
revenue (millions)     168.5   678.0     846.5
net income             -34.7    40.4       5.7
EPS                    -1.37    0.91      0.10

assets                 170.2   698.3     868.5
liabilities             43.5   157.9     201.4
book value             126.9   540.4     667.1

shares (million)        25.2    44.0      59.4

stock price             9.93   22.63
estimated stock price                    20.21 (price/book = 1.8)
stock valuation        250.3   995.7    1200.8

P/E                       NM    24.8        NM
price/sales              1.5     1.5       1.4
price/book               2.0     1.8       1.8

NM = Not meaningful (negative, or greater than 100)

estimated SGI price / MIPS price   2.03  (as of 12/91)
current   SGI price / MIPS price   1.69  (as of 4/14)

estimate of SGI price from calculations above    22.39
percent drop in current price from estimate     -16.9%  (18.625 vs. 22.39)

The drop in the exstimated share price is 17% instead of 19%, as
stated in the previous message.  Still, the question remains:
Why did SGI's shares fall substantially below the price estimate?

Thinking about this a little further, SGI's decision to merge
effectively diluted its stock.  This lowered the price of each SGI
share.  Can the SGI board take this action unilaterally?  I doubt it.
Maybe the board was pretty certain that their plan would pass
a shareholder vote?  The stock holdings data seems to support this theory:

institional holdings:    67.4%
closely held holdings:   11.0%

and 1/3 of the total stock value in preferred shares:

                 (as of 12/91)
preferred stock         $166.7 (million)
common stock             373.6
TOTAL STOCK              540.3

With 78% of SGI's stock in the hands of institutions or management,
it is probably easy for the board to gather support.

Still, doesn't it seem likely that the board of directors was aware
that there might be some resistance to its decision?  If that's true,
then perhaps they felt the past quarter's results would support the
stock dilution?  Again we ask why did SGI stock drop lower than expected?

just wondering,

Gary
-- 
| Gary Funck  		    gary@intrepid.com  [uunet!uupsi!intrepid!gary]
| Intrepid Technology Inc., Mountain View CA (415) 964-8135
--
From: ajayshah@alhena.usc.edu (Ajay Shah)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Program for calculating returns
Date: 16 Apr 1992 15:52:19 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: alhena.usc.edu

mike@netwise.com (Mike Ernst) writes:

>program was written and posted to the net in 1989 by Dennis Bednar.
>It can be used to compute the returns on securities given price
>and dividend information.  There is some documentation in the README

Wow!  That was useful.  Thanks.

I've seen some C source posted on this group from time to
time.  Is there a collection somewhere?  Or have YOU stashed
it all away as it came in?

Does someone have a program to calculate various kinds of index
numbers?  E.g. an index of all computer companies, etc.

        -ans.
-- 

Ajay Shah, (213)749-8133, ajayshah@usc.edu
From: neil@calvin.ksu.ksu.edu (Neil Erdwien)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Discrepancies in On-Line stock databases
Date: 9 Apr 1992 22:48:11 GMT
Organization: Kansas State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: calvin.ksu.ksu.edu
Keywords: databases, stocks, quotes

In article <3310@gdls.UUCP> turini@gdls.UUCP (William Turini) writes:
>
> [data from different sources don't match.]
>

I've noticed that Prodigy's quotes often don't match the newspaper
or what brokers will tell you.  I believe when asked the Prodigy
people said that the discrepancy came from the different sources
of the data: Prodigy used Reuters and most others used Associated Press.

Perhaps NYSE-only vs. NYSE-consolidated is part of the problem?


--
Neil Erdwien
Kansas State University
neil@ksuvm.ksu.edu
From: dwilbert@bbn.com (Deborah Wilbert)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Opinions on Brown & Co.
Date: 15 Apr 1992 12:42:30 GMT
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Reply-To: dwilbert@BBN.COM (Deborah Wilbert)
NNTP-Posting-Host: bbn.com

I am considering whether to open an account at Brown & Co. They are
one of the least expensive discount brokers and they have an office
local to me (Boston).

Has anyone had any (good or bad) experiences with Brown & Co? Does
anyone know how good their executions are?

Thanks for any info.
-Deborah
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: jchen@ftrooper.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Jason Chen)
Subject: Re: AMD
Reply-To: jchen@ctt.bellcore.com
Organization: Bell Communications Research
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 92 12:56:23 GMT

In article <1992Apr9.121304.9697@cbnews.cb.att.com>, lib@cbnews.cb.att.com (Lib) writes:
|> In article <1992Apr8.213359.2340@walter.bellcore.com> jchen@ctt.bellcore.com writes:
|> >I heard over WCBS that a brokerage firm just upped AMD's earning 
|> >estimate from $2.xx to $3.yy. A P/E of 5? Nah, that is too good to be true.
|> 
|> Well maybe not. This morning's Journal shows a P/E of 7. My confusion
|> is why AMD didn't do better yesterday after the earnings report.
|> There was a lot of volume (2.4 million) but the price was
|> unchanged. That means that the earnings and P/E notwitthstanding
|> enough people to amount to 2.4 million shares decided it was time
|> to sell. How come? 
|> 
Because AMD share price doubled in the matter of a few months. Those
who are not to greedy wanted to lock in the gain.
-- 

C. Jason Chen                 
**************E-Mail: jchen@ctt.bellcore.com
**************V-Mail: (908)699-6993
**************P-Mail: 444 Hoes Lane, 1E229, Piscataway, NJ
From: fierro@uts.amdahl.com (Doug Fierro)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: United Way, were our money goes...
Date: 8 Apr 92 23:27:21 GMT
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA

In article <1992Apr8.154824.20575@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> acheng@ncsa.uiuc.edu (A. Cheng) writes:
>
>In article <1992Apr6.193521.4772@digi.lonestar.org>, mdefelic@digi.lonestar.org (Mitch DeFelice) writes:
>>There was an article in Saturday's (4-4-92) Dallas Morning News,
>>reporting ex-United Way's ousted president William Aramony lavish 
>>spending.
>>
>>Where your money went:
>>  [detail deleted..]
>
>Not that I am a great United Way fan, but we need to keep things in
>perspective: only 1% of local collection were sent the Head Quarter
>way.  It may be more important to watch how the remaining 99% are
>spent.

  That doesn't count other administrative overhead...

  Isn't the Salvation Army the only charity where all the employees
are volunteers? (i.e., no one has a salary)

  Doug
-- 
                                                     Doug Fierro
                                      |\             UTS System Software
  O                         __________|_\______      CASE tools development
  \_.______________________| * * * * * * * * */      fierro@uts.amdahl.com
 __\____                   |=================/       (408)746-7102
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: ray@saturn.ucsc.edu (Ray Swartz)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: South Africa a play?
Date: 8 Apr 92 16:19:49 GMT
Article-I.D.: darkstar.32373
Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz

Now that South Africa is becoming part of the world again might there
be profit to be gained by investing in the proper stocks/funds?  I'm
sure there isn't any South Africa funds yet.  Any comments?

Ray
From: gw@hpscit.sc.hp.com (Gordon Wilson)
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 18:57:54 GMT
Subject: Re: Zweig indicators/historical
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Santa Clara, CA
Newsgroups: misc.invest

Frank,
 Funny that you should bring this up, I am reading Zweig's
"Winning on Wall Street" as well.  I am learning, so be patient.

I read that you were able to get the prime rate from Compuserve,
is there any periodical that has it?

If my memory is correct, the prime rate is the interest the banks
charge their favored customers.  If so, then there must be 
hundreds of prime rates.  How do you choose one?

On the front of the stock section in the wall street journal,
there is a fed rate.  But it seems like it always in numbers like
3.77.  But on the news they always quoute more round numbers like
3.75.  Is the fed rate in the WSJ compounded, whereas the news
is simple?

The person (lib?) who replied to the basenote gave the value of the
indicators.  How did you get all this information? Do you subscribe
to Zweig's newsletter?

thanks
gordon

Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: calinski@calspan.com (Peter J. Calinski)
Subject: Re: I (accidentally) let a CD rollover (@4%), what should I do?
Organization: Calspan Advanced Technology Center
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 01:04:50 GMT

In <1992Apr3.153042.25362@aero.org> shag@aero.org (Robert M. Unverzagt) writes:

>In article <72355@netnews.upenn.edu> tony@scotty.dccs.upenn.edu (Anthony Olejnik) writes:
>> 
>> I accidentally let a $5,500 CD rollover.
>> Its now earning 4.02%.
>> The term is either 12 or 18 months (I forget offhand).
>> What should I do?
>> Should I:
>> 	-let it sit
>> 	-withdraw (early, w/ penalty)
>> 
>> How much would the penalty be?
>> 
[stuff deleted]


>I'm pretty sure that the penalty applies only to interest you've
>earned -- they can't touch the principal.  

Sorry, the penalty does go back against the principle.   My wife and I both
had a CD come due on the same day.  We didn't get to the bank in time; we were
only a few days late.  Both were in the same bank but differient branches. When
they told me they were going to "doc" me some off the "new principle" I started
to make a real stink. (I don't remember the real numbers but it was like $60 on
a $2000 or so CD.) They gave in and didn't charge me any penalty.  My wife on 
the otherhand didn't put up the stink and ended up with $60 less than me.

I read the fine print and they were right. Good luck.
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: manoj@novell.com (manoj @ NetWare Global Messaging)
Subject: Re: Program for calculating returns
Organization: Novell, Inc.
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 23:44:57 GMT

does anyone know what was the street expecting for Microsoft's recently ended
quarter earnings. The earnings came out today after market closed.


Xref: sparky clari.tw.stocks:106 misc.invest:6777
From: jdg+@CS.CMU.EDU (John Greiner)
Subject: bond fund yields
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 92 17:22:01 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon University
Distribution: na

I'm confused by what seems like inconsistency of mutual fund bond yields currently.
Short-term bond funds are yielding more than long-term ones, or at least at Scudder:

    Income Fund (high-grade corporate) yields ~6.5%
vs. ST Bond Fund yielding ~7.25%

    Int'l Bond Fund (int'l high-grade corporate) yields ~7.5%
vs. ST Global Bond Fund yielding ~8%

What don't I understand?

jg
From: jprice@eecs.cs.pdx.edu (James Price)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Time to invest in Japan Fund??
Date: 5 Apr 92 14:32:37 GMT
Article-I.D.: pdxgate.5249
Organization: Portland State University, Portland, OR


    NOT!!!   

:)
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
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: quangl@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Quang Le)
Subject: Re: more Options questions
Reply-To: quangl@tabasco.UUCP (Quang Le)
Organization: Motorola Inc., Austin, Texas
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 02:01:52 GMT

>
>>(2) likewise if you buy an option?
>
>If you buy an option, and it expires worthless or if you later sell
>it to close out that position, you have a short-term gain/loss.
>You declare the transaction in the year you close your position in
>the option.
>
>If you exercise the option, the net purchase price of the option is
>used to increase the cost basis of the underlying stock.  When you
>sell the underlying stock, this cost basis (subject to later adjustments)
>is used to calclate the gain/loss.  The year the underlying security
>is sold is the year you list the gain/loss.  The gain/loss is long
>term or short term depending on how long you held the stock itself.
>

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? 

My "characteristics  and risks of standardized options" seems  "yes."
 page 23
"If an options market were to become unavailable, an option holder
would be able to realize his profits or limit his losses only by execising,
and an option writer would remain obligated until expiration  unless
previously assigned. ..."

If I should sell buy my call with a loss before expiration day to
avoid this  diaster, then when is the last day?

Thanks in advance.
Quang Le.
 

-- 
* Quang Le|e-mail:quangl@oakhill.sps.mot.com  *   This space     *
* "Nothing belongs to human is strange to me" *   is reserved    *
*             German Proverb                  *   for future     *
*       (Translated and Retranslated)         *   expansion      *
From: prabhak@cs.umn.edu (Satya Prabhakar)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Stocks newsletter. Netletter!
Date: 7 Apr 92 18:38:13 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.1992Apr7.183813.29626
Organization: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, CSci dept.


 (Lib) writes:
>I thought the newsletter was pretty interesting. Plus there
>were plenty of caveats about do your own research, results
>aren't gauranteed and no attempt to sell the newsletter which
>should keep the inevitable complaints about the posting a little
>lower than usual.
>  
>I HOPE THEY POST IT EVERY MONTH.
>    
>>   1. It has been proved that no one can consistently
>>      beat the market. Period. Most often they fail 
>>      miserably.
>    
>This has not been proved. For example Martin Zweig's newsletter has between
>the S&P over an 11 year period with never a down year (per Hulbert).

No offense meant, but I have to say 'Yeah right!' This is true if
you had invested in Zweigs fund when transaction costs are minimized.

But if you were to pay commisions on your 200 shares everytime you
sell or buy based on the 'revered' Zweig's recommendations, you will
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!

>   
>>   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.
>  
>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
atleast 15-20 counterbalancing stocks.

>  
>>   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!
>    
>True but irrelevant to the newsletter since they didn't tell
>you to put all your money into one stock at one time.
>  
>>coupla thousand shares and buy a basket of stocks. The
>>turnaround commission on an average trade is about 4-5%.
>   
>Discount brokers cut it to 1-2%.
>  

Did you consider the overriding minimum commission they
mention in fine print.

>   
>Again I hope they continue to post it each month
>  .

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!

Satya Prabhakar