The Fool Portfolio

ALEXANDRIA, VA (Oct. 30, 1997) -- Hello Fools from far and wide. I will be pinch-hitting for the ordinary Fool Port folks in tonight's recap. It was Tom's night to write, but David and Tom are currently feeding the media's insatiable desire to explain the recent movements in the market. Their consistent and accurate response is that the short-term movements in the market cannot be reasoned, nor should anyone attempt to do so. Way to go, David and Tom.

So here I am -- your Fool Port captain.

Note to self:
Fool Port readers don't know who I am or what I do.

Self to readers:
As far as my responsibilities within the Motley Fool, I place advertisements all over our America Online and Web forums. Now every time you click (early and often, I hope) on a banner within the Fool, you can think of me. I am proud to say that our advertisers represent a variety of solid businesses in different industry groups, from Allstate insurance to Mercedes-Benz automobiles. Heck, I wouldn't mind having some of our advertisers in this portfolio, although I imagine that would present a slight conflict of interest. Right?

And now to Fool Port, the beast that first introduced me to ATCT not too long ago. What a day to fill in. As a friend here at Fool HQ noted, "It's interesting that you landed the Fool Port on a day when every stock in the portfolio lost money, except of course our one short. Does this tell you something?"

It sure does. Bulls are frightened of my presence.

The bears slowly waltzed on Wall Street today and all over the Fool Port as well. Market indices fell as the Nasdaq plummeted 2.02% and the S&P 500 dropped 1.69%. Unfortunately, Fool Port was not up for the battle of attrition, suffering a 2.93% decline. Fool Port's bloodletting was led by KLA-TENCOR (Nasdaq: KLAC), which declined $5 5/16, or 11.49%. KLA-Tencor has declined over 40% in recent weeks due to uncertainty of Asian demand for semiconductor equipment and numerous analyst downgrades. This sector is definitely in a tailspin as of late.

Other holdings, AMAZON.COM (Nasdaq: AMZN) and 3COM CORP. (Nasdaq: COMS), threw salt in the Fool Port's wounds, with 4.93% and 6.49% drops respectively.

Ironically, as my co-worker so dutifully stated, the only company that fared well (read: broke even and beat the market) today was our short of the Donald. I guess somebody lost their shirt in Atlantic City today. Way to go, Donald.

Not to worry, Fool Port will be back to battle the market indices tomorrow.

I would like to comment on the incredible calm that has surrounded the Fool during this hectic week. Although the market has produced some turbulence of late, passengers here at Fool HQ have been extremely reserved. I think those same feelings are also evident in the thousands of recent posts in our community of message boards as well.

Individual investors are not panicking (like the media expects us to). Why?

It is my belief that individual investors are not panicking now, more than ever, because they are armed with the right perspective. People are investing for the long term and have mentally prepared themselves for the inevitable dips and troughs in the market. The mental aspect of investing is often overlooked, but I think it is much more important to a winning portfolio than any other single factor. After all, it is much more difficult (and rewarding) to stay with your company through troubled times than to consistently sell when the market appears rough. I am definitely happy to work for a company that has mentally prepared individual investors, including myself, for the challenging ride.

Fool on!

--Neil Campbell, TMF Mishap

Drip Portfolio-- Coca-Cola's earnings, part 3.
Boring Portfolio-- Boring set to trade Ox.
Foolish Four Portfolio-- 23% historically.
Fool Message Boards-- Speak your mind!
Latest News-- All the news, early.
Daily Double-- A good stock?
Daily Trouble-- Might be many of these now.
Fribble-- A fun short story from readers.

TODAY'S NUMBERS

Stock  Change    Bid
----------------
AMZN  -3 7/16  61.25
AOL   -2 9/16  75.69
T     -  1/16  48.19
CHV   -  1/2   80.25
DJT   ---       9.06
GM    -2       66.00
INVX  -  1/2   25.25
IOM   -  11/16 25.75
KLAC  -5 5/16  40.94
LU    -1 1/4   81.25
MMM   -1 5/16  92.13
COMS  -3       40.25

                  Day   Month    Year  History
        FOOL     -2.93%  -2.55%  22.67% 227.38%
        S&P:     -1.69%  -4.60%  22.00%  97.14%
        NASDAQ:  -2.02%  -6.84%  21.64% 118.06%


    Rec'd    #  Security     In At       Now    Change
   8/5/94   355 AmOnline       7.27     75.69   940.68%
  5/17/95   980 Iomega Cor     2.52     25.75   921.83%
  10/1/96    42 LucentTech    47.62     81.25    70.64%
   9/9/97   290 Amazon.com    38.22     61.25    60.25%
  8/11/95   125 Chevron       50.28     80.25    59.59%
  8/12/96   110 Minn M&M      65.68     92.13    40.27%
  8/12/96   280 Gen'l Moto    51.97     66.00    26.99%
  8/12/96   130 AT&T          39.58     48.19    21.75%
  4/30/97 -1170 *Trump*        8.47      9.06    -7.01%
  8/24/95   130 KLA-Tencor    44.71     40.94    -8.44%
  6/26/97   325 Innovex       27.71     25.25    -8.88%
  8/13/96   250 3Com Corp.    46.86     40.25   -14.11%


    Rec'd    #  Security     In At     Value    Change
   8/5/94   355 AmOnline    2581.87  26869.06 $24287.19
  5/17/95   980 Iomega Cor  2509.60  25235.00 $22725.40
   9/9/97   290 Amazon.com 11084.24  17762.50  $6678.26
  8/12/96   280 Gen'l Moto 14552.49  18480.00  $3927.51
  8/11/95   125 Chevron     6285.61  10031.25  $3745.64
  8/12/96   110 Minn M&M    7224.44  10133.75  $2909.31
  10/1/96    42 LucentTech  1999.88   3412.50  $1412.62
  8/12/96   130 AT&T        5145.11   6264.38  $1119.27
  8/24/95   130 KLA-Tencor  5812.49   5321.88  -$490.62
  4/30/97 -1170*Trump*     -9908.50 -10603.13  -$694.63
  6/26/97   325 Innovex     9005.62   8206.25  -$799.37
  8/13/96   250 3Com Corp. 11714.99  10062.50 -$1652.49


                              CASH  $32438.81
                             TOTAL $163687.87