HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: prabhak@giga.cs.umn.edu (Satya Prabhakar)
Subject: Re: _Inside_Out_: a tale of insider trading
Organization: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, CSci dept.
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 13:52:55 GMT

(Julien Rene Sellgren) writes:
>I am currently reading _Inside Out_, by Dennis Levine, and I my 
>jaw is hanging.  
>
>What amazes me is how much money these guys were pulling in, and 
>how easy it was for them to do it.   Before he got caught and 
>arrested in 1986, his insider deals were netting one million
>dollars +.  Incredible.  Throughout the whole book, he constantly
>re-iterates how easy it was: He simply went to work, and when
>he found out through the normal course of daily business that
>a company was beeing 'aquired' he would take up a position in
>that company via his secret account in the Carabean.  When the 
>takeover announcement was made public, he would sell out for an 
>incredible profit... 

This is perhaps a crude way for Levine to have profited from this
information. Because it is patently illegal. 

Once a top-notch guy from KKR came to give a lecture to our MBA
class and he related a way for investment bankers to make tons
of money without crossing the line. The modus operandi is as
follows: A takeover fella T comes to our banker B and says he
wants to take over Paramount Communications. B arranges for the
necessary financing and buys heavily into 20th Century Fox, a
similar company in the entertainment business. Then when the
takeover bid is announced, Paramount shoots up and all other
entertainment companies rise in sympathy. B then unloads his
long position and walks to the bank with a smile. 

Kinda neat, ha!

Satya Prabhakar
--
___________________________________________
Happiness, dear Phaedrus, is a passed pawn!
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: pag@aurora.hao.ucar.edu (Peter Gross)
Subject: Re: Bank of New York Warrants
Organization: Malco Partners
Distribution: usa
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 02:57:07 GMT

In article <1jiembINN68l@mirror.digex.com> gbr@access.digex.com (Gary Rosenberg) writes:
>I need an opinion on the Bank of New York Warrants. These Warrants are now
>selling at a price of $12.00. The warrants expire in 1998, with the right to
>buy the stock at $60.00.  Where do you think the stock will be in 5 years?
>Is this a fair price for the warrants. Any input please

A warrant is essentially a very long term option (sort of a super-LEAP).
The standard Black-Scholes valuations apply to them with one major difference.
Warrants can be "callable" (like bonds).  Regular options have no
comparable condition -- if you are long an option, you cannot be forced to
excercise it.  The callability reduces the value of a warrant, since an
in-the-money warrant can be a proxy for the underlying stock and is a cheaper
way (lower carrying cost) to hold the stock.  In the normal (non-callable)
case the cost-to-carry would be added to the intrinsic value (plus any
volatility premium).  But if it is callable the cost-to-carry has to be
adjusted down to reflect the possibility of forced exercise.

Call the company to find out under what terms, if any, the warrants can be
called.
--
--peter gross
pag@scg.boulder.co.us
(303)-447-1374
From: skristan@vineland.pubs.stratus.com (Steve Kristan)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Ames Department Stores
Date: 21 Jan 1993 17:12:21 GMT
Organization: Stratus Computer Inc, Marlboro MA
NNTP-Posting-Host: istvan.pubs.stratus.com

According to a spokesperson in Investor Relations at Ames, the stock currently
on NASDAQ is available only to Ames creditors, not the public. Ames stock  
issued prior to November 1992 is "null and void." In getting out of Chapter 11,  
Ames -- or its creditors -- left previous shareholders high and dry. 
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: sullivan@cs.washington.edu (Kevin Sullivan)
Subject: Diversifying with 20K
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 93 20:23:20 GMT

Folks,

Here's a hypothetical scenario.  X, a person, has $20K to invest.  X
currently has $10K in a money market, currently returning near-to-nothing,
and the other $10K in a conservative mutual fund returning 10% anualized
over the last five years.  Sometime in the next two to three years X would
like to purchase a house and so will need a sizable amount of cash for a
down payment at that time.

Could X "do any better" in the meanwhile (in a risk-adjusted sense) by
moving some of that $20K to other instruments?  What portfolio would you
suggest that X consider?  

Thanks,
Kevin


-- 
Kevin Sullivan
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, FR-35
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195 
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: klug@Software.Mitel.COM (Peter Klug)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Opinion requested on TAIPAN monthly report
Date: 21 Jan 93 13:50:17 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Mitel Corporation; Kanata, Ontario, Canada


I've just received a flyer soliciting subscriptions to TAIPAN.  It
appears to be a monthly report which talks about emerging trends and
companies which are poised for "spectacular" growth.  The type of
situations described include new inventions and strategic positioning
to exploit some service for which a high demand is developing.

Anyway, it could be a good idea or just another scam.  Does anyone
have any first hand experience with TAIPAN to pass on?  Thanks.


--
*        Peter Klug         *  Peter_Klug@Software.Mitel.COM
*     Mitel Corporation     *  
*  Kanata, Ontario, Canada  *  Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: watanabe@cs.uiuc.edu (Larry Watanabe)
Subject: Re: opinions on nature's bounty
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 17:03:23 GMT

TDOPER35@ysub.ysu.edu writes:

>What is your opinion of nature's bounty?  Do you think it still has growth pote
>ntial? Would you buy it now?
> 
>DOGGER

In an interview with Barron's, the management of Nature's
Bounty mentioned they had acquired some low multiple companies.
If you don't understand why Barron's shuddered, this is a
very old game and works like this:

Suppose you have a P/E of say 50. Say you make
a million, and use that to acquire a company with a P/E of 4.

Company A: P/E = 50, earnings per share (EPS) = $1.00
earn $1 million		price $50 million	shares 1 million
long term debt: nil
cash: $4 million

buy:

Company B: P/E = 4, eps = $1.00
earn $1 million		price $4 million	shares 1 million
long term debt: nil
cash: nil

Company A+B:	P/E = 25 eps = $2.00
earn $2 million		price $50 million 	shares 1 million
long term debt: nil
cash: nil

By this acquisition, the company has doubled its earnings in 
a year, and haved it's P/E. Based on this remarkable performance,
the price is bid up the old P/E. This leads the company to
declare a 2:1 split.

Company A+B:	P/E = 50, earnings per share earnings per share (EPS) = $1.00
earn $2 million		price $100 million	shares $2 million
long term debt: nil
cash: nil

It looks like the company is doing very well. It is at the same P/E,
and has doubled its earnings in a year.

The point is that high P/E companies can, by simply buying low
P/E companies, give the impression of growth when nothing is
really happening. Nature's Bounty is generating quite a bit of
its growth this way, management freely admits it.

I also don't think that mail-order vitamins is a market that
is so hard to break into. If the area is so lucrative,
why don't we invest our own money and start our own company
instead of investing in Nature's Bounty?

-Larry Watanabe

Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: ask@cbnews.cb.att.com (Arthur S. Kamlet)
Subject: Re: rollover into 2 funds, ok?
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories,  Columbus, Ohio
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 00:35:02 GMT

In article <C183pt.MrE@news.cso.uiuc.edu> acheng@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Albert Cheng) writes:
>
>In article <1993Jan21.185622.20641@cbnews.cb.att.com>, ask@cbnews.cb.att.com (Arthur S. Kamlet) writes:
>>Each Fund may charge you a custodian fee; Vanguard charges $10 per
>>year per fund.  You should make this fee a separate payment, written
>>with a separate check.  Otherwise you will have withdrawn (perhaps a
>>Not Permitted withdrawal) the fee from your account; the Fund
>>Custodian will take the fee from your account and you will be stuck
>>with a withdrawal.
>
>Is that (custodian fee from accout) count as withdrawal?  I have a
>403b with Fedility with $12 a year fee.  They just take $4 each
>quarter (Hm... that does not add up.) for fee.  Fedality never
>sends me any bill for it; they just do it.  Will IRS go after me
>for this "early withdrawal" that is not initiated by me?

If you get a 1099-R then assume it is a withdrawal.  It is even iof
you don't get a 1099.

The idea of putting money into an IRA is to get it to build up and
compouhd tax deferred.  The more you have in the account the more it
will build, it says here in fine print.

So it's to your advantage to pay the custodian fee yourself (Besides
saving a real $4 per year :^)
-- 
Art Kamlet  a_s_kamlet@att.com  AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus
From: gpalo@digi.lonestar.org (Gerry Palo)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: YOUR stock picks
Date: 27 Jan 93 19:31:11 GMT
Organization: DSC Communications Corp, Plano, TX

In article <1993Jan25.235616.26980@tellab5.tellabs.com> lash@tellabs.com (Bill Lash) writes:
>In article <1993Jan22.163942.19832@spectrum.xerox.com> root@vinevalley.mc.xerox.com writes:
>>
>>	Many people on this newsgroup are investors that do their own 
>>investigation of companies looking for a good buy. Lynn West has stated that she
>> would post some 8 -10 stocks that she's been watching to see if she can beat
>> some mutual funds.
>>
>>	PLEASE  post your picks ... I doubt anyone will use them without 
>>their own investigation and I beleive I have found some interesting stocks with 
>>your assistance already. We aren't like the full time brockerages with research 
>>teams that can watch every stock so this may help us all. Maybe a free flow of 
>>information and opinions is what we want.
>>
>>Some I've been watching :
>>
>>Rio Hotel & Casino ( NASDAQ, RIO )
>>The Gap ( NTSE, GAP )
>
>Ok, I've been watching:
>
>Pride Co. (NYSE,PRF)
>Westinghouse (NYSE,WX)
>and just for fun:
>National Tech. Team (OTC,TEAM)

What are you seeing in Westinghouse (WX)? Have you any price target
speculations?
From: quan@hpcc01.corp.hp.com (Suu Quan)
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 21:21:54 GMT
Subject: Bears vs Bulls
Organization: the HP Corporate notes server
Newsgroups: misc.invest

Would someone explain the meaning of "Bull" & "Bear" in this (financial) context
please.


(Apparently having not much money to be interested in this group)
From: pcollac@pyrnova.mis.pyramid.com (Paul Collacchi)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Index funds
Date: 22 Jan 93 19:42:04 GMT
Reply-To: pcollac@pyrnova.mis.pyramid.com (Paul Collacchi)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Pyramid Technologies, Mt. View, California.

In article <1993Jan22.025201.22601@tandem.com>,
pearson_steven@tandem.com (Steven R. Pearson) writes:
|>  
|> It seems to me that the real answer is that professional stock pickers can
|> sometimes outperform the market.  Of course, not only do they have to
|> pick good stocks, but you have to pick a good manager (and/or both of you
|> have to get lucky).
|> 

Of course.  *Anyone* can sometimes outperform the market.  It just means
that a particular "sample" or market was not representative of the whole.  Most
samples are not representative of the whole, buy many unrepresentative
samples are, as well as "large" samples.

|> Question:  If anybody (eg. you or I) can consistently pick outperforming
|> mutual
|> funds, then must there be an ineffiency in the system?
|> 
|> Here are a couple possible answers:
|> (a) Yes, there is an inefficiency, it's all those financial planners
and brokers who
|> have other goals than recommending the best funds to their clients.
|> (b) The premise is invalid; you and I can't consistently pick outperforming
|> mutual funds.
|> 
|>

Both are probably true.  How can both be true?  It depends upon what 
assumptions you make about the flow of information.  Premise (b) assumes
that complete information eventually shows up in the market price of 
a security.  Premise (a) acknowledges that the stock price doesn't 
instantly reflect the information change.  

Through market mechanisms, (b) is probably more accurate, but as an individual 
you probably could place yourself where you would have quicker access to
certain information.  For example, you could hang out where "insiders" 
report their anticipated trading activity.  This is the legal way to know
as least as soon as anyone that a particular insider was intending to make
a particular transaction.

However, if *you* use public sources of information, then you are no better
off than anyone else who has access to those same sources.

Paul Collacchi

Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: rmilder@pdx220.intel.com(Rich Milder)
Subject: Smart Investor
Reply-To: rmilder@ichips.intel.com
Organization: Intel Corporation MP6
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 20:49:10 GMT


   Does anyone have any experience using Reality's Smart Investor? I have been 
looking for some info on it to see if it is a worth while investment software
package to own.

  I am looking for stock quote info., news updates, and perhaps a way to chart
or graph some stocks and or my portfolio performance. The quotes afer hours 
would be fine as I am an 8-5 type.

  The cover on Smart Investor says the monthly service is $9.95 plus an
additional $8.00 for stock quotes. There is also access to articles from Money,
S&P Comstock, and various investment letters also. Do all of these services
cost extra? What are the hidden costs?

  Are the charts and graphs any good? There are also supposed to be buy and sell
alerts that affect your particular investments. 

  I am wondering if this stuff adds up to being too costly, and if I would be
better off subscribing to Prodigy, Compuserve, Genie, or the Dow Jones News 
Retrieval. Any insight would be much appreciated.


-- 
   +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Richard A. Milder                   Intel Corporation               |
   | Tel:     (503) 696-8004             Microprocessor Division 6       |
   | Email:   rmilder@ichips.intel.com   2111 N.E. 25th Ave., MS JF1-19  |
   | Fax:     (503) 681-9017	         Hillsboro, OR 97124-5961        |
   +---------------------------------------------------------------------+

 "The only person to get all of his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe."

                                                          -RM     
        
        

Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: dgleiter@newsance.att.com (David E Gleiter;79A302L;4078754142)
Subject: Info on LYONs
Organization: AT&T IMS, Maitland FL
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 22:00:11 GMT

Does anyone have information on LYONs (Liquid Yield Option Notes)? I have
recently had a broker call me on these notes which provide a minimum return
of 6.5% and an unlimited maximum return. From what I understand, it is a note
that you purchase with a specified maturity date and is somehow associated
with a stock. At or before the maturity date, you can cash in the note at
current price of the stock or convert to a bond. Any and all information
would be appreciated. Thanks.

Dave
From: glenne@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Neuromancer )
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: thanks
Date: 25 Jan 1993 17:24:05 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 thank everyone for their replies regarding eliminating
the broker for no load mutual funds.  I received a vast amount of useful
information.  For example, after the minimum initial investment, I plan
on spreading out the rest of my investment over an reasonable time
period.  This ought to at least partially cover the risk that
someone mentioned about investing when the market is pricey.  I realize
that there really is no consensus of when a good time to invest is.
But do any of you have any rough techniques of deciding when a good time
to invest is?  For example, might one wait until the DJIA dips below
3200 before investing?
 
Along with spreading my investments out over time, how about spreading
my investments out over several mutual funds?  Would it be a good idea
to spread my investments out over 2 or 3 funds?
 
Glenn                                    glenne@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: acheng@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Albert Cheng)
Subject: Re: Mutual Fund Expenses
Originator: acheng@shalom.ncsa.uiuc.edu
Organization: Nat'l Ctr for Supercomp App (NCSA) @ University of Illinois
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 21:50:31 GMT


In article <1993Jan26.194013.2478@news.columbia.edu>, gs38@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Gopalakrishnan Subramaniam) writes:
>
>Mutual fund sales loads and expenses
>
>Not every fund charge heavy sales load on investments.
>
>Look at my earlier posting on no load mutual funds with excellent returns.
>if you did not see it, let me know and i shall post it again.
>
>Expenses: Usually for a big fund (assets over 1 billion) expenses should be
>1% or less. For small funds it can be as much as 2.5%. However, when the
>fund reports its yearly returns it includes the expenses but excludes the
>sales load. Expenses cover market research, advertisement, admin., etc.
>
>Turnover rate: This is another important factor to be considered in mutual
>fund investing. It measures the amount of trading the fund manager does each
>year. A turnover rate of 100% is equivalent to selling all the fund's assets
>and buying an equal amount of assets in the same or different stocks. More
>trading means the fund manager changes his opinions on the stocks too often
>OR he is generating commissions for his brokerage. Either way it is bad for
>the fund holders. Good funds have turnover rates less than 100%. However,
>adverse market conditions can force higher turnover rates.

Is the "amount" measured in dollar value or shares of {stocks,bonds,...}
or something else?  What if the manager thinks IBM is gonna dive but will
bounce back couple times, so he/she smartedly sells/buys it two
times this year.  By year end, the fund holds the same number of IBM shares.
Would it be count as "No", "Two" or "four" turnover?

What about options buying?  Wouldn't that really crank up the turnover
rate?

Any way, this is an informative article.  Thanks.
From: breid@pyrhard2.eng.pyramid.com (Bill Reid)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Investing around hyperinflation
Date: 21 Jan 93 23:13:44 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corporation, Mountain View

In article <185056@pyramid.pyramid.com> pcollac@pyrnova.mis.pyramid.com (Paul Collacchi) writes:
>
>Putting aside the question of whether the US is headed towards 
>insolvency and some kind of hyper-inflation, what is a good 
>investment strategy to protect investments through a period of
>hyperinflation.  Is it as easy as "getting out" of dollars?
>
If the situation in Brazil over the last decade is any guide, the 
goal is to have as many dollars as possible, and invest the 
vast majority of them in short term money funds.  The rich in Brazil 
have managed to keep their money this way, while moderate to low 
income people have been decimated by inflation, because they don't 
have the minimum capital requirements to invest (every cruziero goes 
for sustanance, not savings).  The interesting thing is that a 
deflationary spiral (also possible) would have a similar strategy, 
but either not invested at all (probably the best strategy), or 
going to the long end of the bond spectrum.
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: scott@phylo.life.uiuc.edu (mrh)
Subject: Re: Dreyfus Funds
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 17:35:19 GMT

At any rate, you must absolutely, positively stay in the
Appreciation fund with a five year horizon, or you'll get
taken for every penny you have.
--
Coffee Facts from Dr. Science:
1) You can never brew coffee too strong.
2) You can never drink too much coffee.
3) Coffee does not make you nervous.  Your own inadequacies do that.
   Coffee merely increases your perception of your own inadequacies.
4) Tea is to coffee as ginger ale is to Scotch.
From: sjo2693@tesla.njit.edu
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: Re: Aim Mutual Funds as a IRA
Date: 26 Jan 93 13:20:29 GMT
Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology

According to the Mutual Fund Forecaster of Dec. 92..Aim.Weingarten
is recommended as a Hold and a Risk Rating of High.
From: gpw@sandman.caltech.edu (Glenn Wyne)
Newsgroups: misc.invest
Subject: ClearTrend:  Power software for investors
Date: 25 Jan 1993 22:22:53 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: sandman.caltech.edu

                 *                                   *
                * *         CLEARTREND 1.02         * *
               * * *                               * * *


ClearTrend software is a stock market analysis and stock charting
program developed specifically for the average, but serious investor.
It is available on 3.5" and 5.25" media for DOS machines with VGA/EGA
support.

ClearTrend was designed so that any investor can use its features to
build a portfolio (either in theory or in actual practice) that will
help him/her make money in the markets.  It also provides more power
to the stockbroker or investment advisor to enhance his/her already
extensive knowledge of the markets.

Although there are no guarantees that any method of investing will make
the investor money, I can safely say that users of ClearTrend software
will love using ClearTrend because its benefits are extensive and the
simplicity of its use is compelling.

Once the ClearTrend program is installed on your system, you will be able
to use your modem to get each day's trades for about 9000 stocks (at the
present time your data updates will be shipped to you weekly on diskette)
and then merge the new data with the existing database you received with
the program at purchase.  You may choose to purchase ClearTrend with
either 6 or 12 months of historic data.

To see what ClearTrend "looks and feels" like, send a check or money
order for $20 (US funds) along with your preference of media (3.5" high
density or 5.25" high density) and the new version 1.02 demo disks will
be sent to you promptly.
                                             Glenn Wyne
                                              65 North Allen #209
                                               Pasadena, California  91106

For pricing information, send me email and I will give you a price quote.
By not posting the price outright I am hopefully preventing this posting
from being offensive to internet news users.

The $20 fee can be deducted from the price of the package when you order.

DISCLAIMER:  Employer (Caltech) is not responsible for this posting or
the software (ClearTrend) that I am distributing for Nova Software, Inc.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
gpw@antares.caltech.edu    ||    gpw@cco.caltech.edu    ||   Glenn Wyne
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: misc.invest
From: feldstei@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Ronald F. Feldstein)
Subject: Re: YOUR stock picks
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 02:00:17 GMT

Cabot Corp. (CBT)
LCS Industries (LCSI)
Micro Healthsystems (MCHS)