Fool Portfolio Report
Wednesday, May 22, 1996
NOTE: Our new policy regarding Fool Portfolio trade
announcements has changed...Click
HERE for details
(Foolish e-mail list subscribers have a copy in their box, as well). Interested
readers should make a point of reading this document.
(FOOL GLOBAL
WIRE)
by Dave Gardner
ALEXANDRIA, VA, May 22, 1996 -- OK, so whadda you want me to say?
You're clicking in here to read something intelligent, tonight, right? That's the idea, anyway. . . that's the point of signing into The Fool Online. But I'm telling you instead to go to our message boards. Or try keyword SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. . . because you ain't gonna find any intelligence here, hombre.
Iomega rose $10 5/8.
You know, we actually try to be a fairly serious organization. We're trying soberly and responsibly to bear the banner of the new medium and the new world, and take that banner out to America. We even fancy ourselves a somewhat legitimate journalistic entity, to the point that places like the National Press Club invite us to speak (like today) and we make a good-faith, serious go of it.
But then we get back to the office, and this happens. Silliness. Giddiness. Just one constant high-five session with our readership day in and day out. No seriousness! No legitimacy. We become something between Princess Di and Robin Leach. Sheeesh. (Or should that have been, "Sheach"?)
Today's title, a pun on the Kubrick movie title, takes its significance from Iomega's current overall gain for us, now 2038.77%. IOMG stock really does, in some senses, seem to have blasted off into outer space, having long ago slipped the surly bonds of our mundane planet, our mundane earthly reality. Is this company going to take us into space next? The Zip Shuttle, the one that finally enables us to fit 100 astronauts on board, where previous versions were strained at 1.44 passengers. . . I can see it now. It does seem at this point as if it's even actually possible.
OK. . . 16.9 million shares traded today. . . at the current market price, that is over $900 million. In one day. Any suggestions that The Motley Fool is "moving Iomega" on a daily basis are even more absurd than usual.
So who did buy? You know the answers already. The first was institutions. . . they are finally discovering IOMG, and they want the stock. On the phone with a national magazine reporter today, I mentioned something that continues to astound me the more I think about it. Only one mainstream Wall Street firm (Hambrecht & Quist) has a report out about Iomega! Iomega: the company that should do in excess of $1.5 billion in sales this year, the company in the midst of transforming the computer hardware industry into one focused on hip, marketable brands, and now one of the NASDAQ's consistently most active---even, highest capitalized---stocks.
One Wall Street report.
What does that tell you? I'll leave that question rhetorical, dear Fool. . . but it suggests to me many things, all of them revolutionary and important, all of them good news for you and me.
I suspect the other buyers today were short sellers. We are witnessing one of the more amazing short squeezes in recent memory. . . I'm guessing some hedge funds went bankrupt this week.
For those of us who try not to get TOO caught up in the day-to-day (even when it represents a one-day 11% plus gain on our portfolio), we shall just continue to watch and learn. NOTE: Most people have to pay for entertainment like this; we GET paid. That's the stock market. . . that, my friends, is high Foolishness.
---David Gardner, May 22, 1996
Transmitted: 5/22/96
Day Month Year HistoryFOOL +11.39% 30.38% 119.01% 308.95%
S&P 500 +0.84% 3.70% 10.14% 48.00%
NASDAQ +0.23% 4.77% 18.55% 73.19%
*Scroll down or expand screen for full portfolio accounting
AMER - 3/4 ...CHV +1 3/8 ...GE +1 1/2 ...GPS ---... IOMG +10 5/8 ...KLAC - 1/4 ...MDRX - 1/8 ...S -1...
Rec'd # Security In At Now Change
5/17/95 2010 Iomega Cor 2.52 53.88 2038.77%
8/5/94 680 AmOnline 7.27 50.75 597.80%
4/20/95 310 The Gap 16.28 33.13 103.53%
8/5/94 165 Sears 28.93 48.88 68.97%
8/11/95 95 GenElec 57.91 84.88 46.55%
8/11/95 110 Chevron 49.00 61.88 26.28%
1/29/96 250 Medicis Ph 27.86 34.38 23.39%
8/24/95 130 KLA Instrm 44.71 26.50 -40.73%
Rec'd # Security Cost Value Change
5/17/95 2010 Iomega Cor 5063.13 108288.75$103225.62
8/5/94 680 AmOnline 4945.56 34510.00 $29564.44
4/20/95 310 The Gap 5045.25 10268.75 $5223.50
8/5/94 165 Sears 4772.65 8064.38 $3291.73
8/11/95 95 GenElec 5501.87 8063.13 $2561.26
1/29/96 250 Medicis Ph 6964.99 8593.75 $1628.76
8/11/95 110 Chevron 5389.99 6806.25 $1416.26
8/24/95 130 KLA Instrm 5812.49 3445.00 -$2367.49
CASH $16434.53
TOTAL $204474.53
