Dad's 2002 Returns

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Stocks for Dad

June 19, 2003

Ouch! No question, our Dads from 2002 are not the slightest bit happy with us. Three of the four companies we wanted to sell Dad on lost better than 40%, one dropping more than 80% Yeeeeeow!

Rick Munarriz's Dad would have been much better off with a gift certificate to Famous Dave's (Nasdaq: DAVE) than a stub of its stock. Selena Maranjian's Dad is going to love her no matter what, but her stock did its own impression of a Triple Lindy, losing 82%. Of course, Selena placed an enormous number of caveats on Cryo-Cell's (Nasdaq: CCELE) riskiness. One thing that she did not mention was that the company would be subject to an SEC investigation. How on earth would she know?

Hey, it happens, but in this case, with a company that small and that speculative, the investing powers that be did not smile upon Cryo-Cell. Hey, it may turn out to be a great company. But if you're going to deal in defined time frames like "how'd the stock do in the last 365 days" you cannot deal in "maybe." Cryo-Cell got crushed, and deservedly so.

Kudos to Bill Mann for going to the head of the class by beating the S&P with his pick, Allied Capital (NYSE: ALD)

As always, these were simply ideas we'd give to our Dads, not a portfolio that we would try to build. Dad, sometimes you do know best -- always do your own homework whenever your children toss "hot stock tips" your way.


                 Writer      6/02   Current   Gain/Loss
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Famous Dave's    Munarriz   $7.37      4.16     -43.55%
Allied Capital   Mann       25.21     23.60       4.88%
Cryo-Cell        Maranjian    5.3      0.95     -82.08%
ESS Technology   Munarriz   15.73      9.24     -41.26%
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S&P 500                     101.4    100.61       0.72%