Fool Portfolio Report
Friday, September 6, 1996

[Editor's note: Hiya, Fools, MF Czar here. We had a shortage of warm bodies here today, so the Fool content machine had to be jerry-rigged. I borrowed some duct tape and a jackknife from MF McGyver, and we're in business. Now, without further ado, please put your hands together for the Fool Portfolio debut of the charming, the entertaining, the sucker, er, the scintillating... Laura Boydston!!!]

(FOOL GLOBAL WIRE)
by Laura Boydston (Boydston)

ALEXANDRIA, VA, September 6, 1996 -- It's Friday. It's David's day to do the writeup. I know you are expecting an incisive, coherent essay on the activity of the stocks in the Fool Portfolio. But look what you have instead -- me... sitting at my keyboard... wondering how I ended up with this responsibility and wondering if this hurricane will blow in a power outage and save me.

It's unlikely -- I'm not that lucky. Well we're stuck with each other. Rather than bore you with my musings on the days activity, I thought that I'd solicit help from my fellow HQers. While not necessarily insightful it'll give you a chance to know us all a little better.

There are a total of 12 bodies here at HQ, less than half the normal muster. (This includes my dead pet roach Bernie, but let's not talk about him.) With our Friday afternoon "staff meeting" just completed, the total number of sound minds is somewhat fewer than 12. Ya see... Tom's still in San Francisco. Fletch and David spent the day in New York. They tell me that they're working, but everytime they call, it sounds as if they're playing arcade games. That means Dwight was left in charge of the staff meeting... ut oh.

Knave is now entertaining us with songs, FoolSpeke is playing on the Web, Dryad is trying to show everyone pictures of a newborn family member and the interns are playing foosball, while Czar frantically tries to edit and post everything in sight. The graphics guy dove under his desk when I asked him about stocks and the FoolMart people offered to lend me some primers on stocks.

Maybe you didn't want to know HQ any better. So here I sit, trying to remember something intelligent-sounding from my economics class in college. It isn't working.

The portfolio is down today. But not by much. Thank goodness, it wasn't all that exciting of a day in the news, though. So, a hemming and hawing, "...If on the one hand, and then on the other hand," writeup won't be noticed. It will sink into the obscurity of "Past Reports."

[Editor's note: The Fool Portfolio wasn't down much today, but the indices were up strongly, so there's some egg on the FoolPort face. The Fool fell 0.19% today, while the S&P 500 rose 0.96%, and the Nasdaq Composite tacked on a healthy 1.22%.]

Let's start with all the bad news stocks. The ones that took us down.

AMER was down an eighth. It probably has something to do with The Honorable Charles R. Weiner. Well maybe not, but it might. (This is called speculation, I hear it muttered in stock circles.) Anyway, he ruled today that AOL had to stop blocking "junk" e-mail distribution.

Welcome to e*mail's version of CAR-RT-SORT.

This is the uncharted cyber-territory of regulation. Where are the rights here? Is my e*mail box private space, like my home, and I only get to invite those I want to visit? Or is my e*mail box, public space, like my snail mail box, and a repository for all to exercise the unalienable right to free speech?

[Editor's note: Death to Junk Mail!]

Moving right along...

GM was down $3/8, IOMG was down $1/2, and KLAC was down $5/8.

THIS IS WHERE KEITH SAVES ME FROM MY IGNORANCE...

[Editor's note: If I were inclined to save Laura, this is the part where I might mention that GM is still facing some negative sentiment over the pending UAW negotiations (as outlined in Wednesday's report). I might also scratch my head about IOMG, and make some sympathetic clucking noises about KLAC.]

Now the good stuff, what little of it there is.

CHV was up $1/2. They announced today that William D. Edman was named president of Chevron Canada Resources (CCR), the company's Canadian exploration and production subsidiary based in Calgary. Way to go Willy!

ATT was up 3/4, MDRX was up $1 1/2, MMM was up $1/2 and COMS was up $1 1/8.

THIS IS WHERE KEITH SAVES ME FROM MY IGNORANCE...AGAIN

[Editor's note: You're doing just fine, Laura... heh, heh, heh... ]

--- Laura Boydston, September 6, 1996

Today's Numbers 

                   Day   Month    Year  History
        FOOL     -0.19%  -4.93%  20.26% 124.55%
        S&P 500  +0.96%   0.57%   6.45%  43.04%
        NASDAQ   +1.22%  -0.18%   8.29%  58.21%


    Rec'd   #  Security     In At       Now    Change

  5/17/95 2010 Iomega Cor     2.52     13.75   445.86%
   8/5/94  680 AmOnline       7.27     28.25   288.43%
  1/29/96  375 Medicis Ph    18.57     39.00   109.98%
  8/11/95  125 Chevron       50.28     60.25    19.82%
  8/12/96  110 Minn M&M      65.68     68.00     3.54%
   8/13/96 250 3Com Corp.    46.86     47.50     1.37%
   8/12/96 130 AT&T          54.96     52.75    -4.02%
   8/12/96 280 Gen'l Moto    51.97     47.75    -8.13%
  8/24/95  130 KLA Instrm    44.71     17.75   -60.30%

    Rec'd   #  Security      Cost     Value    Change

  5/17/95 2010 Iomega Cor  5063.13  27637.50 $22574.37
   8/5/94  680 AmOnline    4945.56  19210.00 $14264.44
  1/29/96  375 Medicis Ph  6964.99  14625.00  $7660.01
  8/11/95  125 Chevron     6285.61   7531.25  $1245.64
   8/12/96 110 Minn M&M    7224.44   7480.00   $255.56
   8/13/96 250 3Com Corp. 11714.99  11875.00   $160.01
   8/12/96 130 AT&T        7144.99   6857.50  -$287.49
  8/11/95  280 Gen'l Moto 14552.49  13370.00 -$1182.49
  8/24/95  130 KLA Instrm  5812.49   2307.50 -$3504.99


                             CASH   $1379.61
                            TOTAL $112273.36



Transmitted: 9/6/96