Ask Rande

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/99/0823/640...

Top 1729. Aug 11, 1999 6:36 AM

» RandeS - The latest "Digital Rules" from Kirk Karlgaard (Forbes Publisher

The latest "Digital Rules" from Kirk Karlgaard (Forbes Publisher) is a must read for those interested in bandwidth, molecular processors, and what might be "next." If you're not catching this column in Forbes on a regular basis you're missing one of the brightest writers around.

-- posted by RandeS

Top 1730. Aug 11, 1999 7:13 AM

» KirkL - Great Article, Rande

Great Article, Rande
Do you have a scanner installed in your forehead to get all this good info or do you take the bus/streetcar to work and read a bit each day with the long delays all Willie's building has caused?

Speaking of trickle…. Interesting how trickle down seems to be working so well in the great Demo bastion of SanFran. Voodo economics at its best! South of Market is a boom town and now we have news types interviewing people complaining that they are being displaced by those that want to work. News yesterday was on how the building was going to mess up traffic.

Back to your article. The productivity increase is amazing. I did some research for someone yesterday on the mutual funds they own so I could make a "sell list" for pruning the dogs and going to VTSMX but taking some time for tax reasons so we sell the worst ones first. Anyway, I was able to do the whole research and recommendations on my PC without having pen touch paper and right from my home office. Just a few short yrs ago, doing this research would have involved a trip to the library and many hours of going through information. I probably would have had to call all 6 funds and had them send their prospectus so I could also look at holdings and objectives. That would have been hours and hours of work, stacks of papers, 6 packets in the mail, etc… The net allowed me to do it in about two hours! The results you can get now are so impressive too. Best part, all this information is available on the net for FREE!

Here is something that will make Tony happy. A 200MMX with 4M video is supposed to be fast enough for websurfing. Well, with all the processing I do for the above type of task and how I like to have multiple browsers AND browser windows open to do this sort of research, I am considering an Intel PIII with 12M video just to be more efficient. Also, I often run out of memory with "only" 64Meg so I will look to go to 128M.

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-- posted by KirkL

Top 1731. Aug 11, 1999 7:19 AM

» JenL_3 - Janus Fund Family

Here is the link to the article Rande mentions on the Janus fund family in Forbes.com:

Winner Takes All

Yes - It should be interesting from here to see if Janus can continue to outperform.....Jen

-- posted by JenL_3

Top 1732. Aug 11, 1999 7:35 AM

» RandeS - Thanks Jen.

Thanks Jen. Interesting to see how Janus has done so well over the past ten years, with less downside in turbulent market periods than you might expect. Interesting too to see in other news that the funds own such a high percentage of Amazon (around 10%).

-- posted by RandeS

Top 1733. Aug 11, 1999 10:51 AM

» RandeS - Looks like the 10-year Note auction came in slightly better than

Looks like the 10-year Note auction came in slightly better than expected. Anticpated yield was 6.11, came in on average at 6.085. Bid-to-cover wasn't bad at over 2, especially compared to recent 5-year auction. Here's the numbers:

10-YEAR NOTES
YIELDS
High 6.085 pct
Median 6.070 pct
Low 6.019 pct
Interest rate 6.0 pct

PRICE/ACCEPTANCES
Price 99.370
Accepted at high 58 pct
Bid-to-cover ratio 2.07

-- posted by RandeS

Top 1734. Aug 11, 1999 11:06 AM

» KirkL - BID-to-cover ratio

BID-to-cover ratio
Can you explain what that means for us?
I understand it is an auction, but maybe a full explaination of how the rates are set and how Treasury Direct investors get in on the action would be useful for all?
thanks in advance!

-- posted by KirkL

Market not "blue" over Beige Book

Top 1735. Aug 11, 1999 11:15 AM

» RandeS - Will get to bid-to-cover in a bit, but first.

Will get to bid-to-cover in a bit, but first...it wasn't supposed to be a market mover but the market should like today's Beige Book:

-- posted by RandeS

Top 1736. Aug 11, 1999 11:32 AM

» RandeS - Bid-to-cover Ratio

This ratio gives an indication of whether demand for bills, notes and bonds under Treasury auction is decent or not. Simply, it's the number of bids received divided by the number of bids accepted. The best way to look at the ratio is to compare it to previous auction and 12-month average ratios for the same issue (level of the "normal" ratio varies, depending on whether you're talking about bills, notes, or bonds). Bottom line -- the higher the bid-to-cover ratio the better because it means there was lots of demand (like an oversubscribed IPO). But, again, it's not the pure number that matters (unless it's really great or really bad) as much as it's measure relative to past auctions of similar maturities.

-- posted by RandeS

Top 1737. Aug 11, 1999 5:31 PM

» TONYBRIG - Barrons on Empl Report

Rande:

According to Barrons:

When the employment report comes in high;
The Morgan Stanley high tech and cyclical indexes and Sox Indexes
perk up (or similar wording)

I dont get it Do you?

-- posted by TONYBRIG