experienced

Shumway Increases Long Exposure Through Blue Chips

The emphasis of the fund on technology issues, especially those involving some form of telecommunications or off site archiving of data, is interesting to say the least. Among the group, Qualcomm stands out as the owner of most of the essential patents for wireless communication. Most of the top holdings of the fund also include companies doing a sizable business overseas, which suggests that profit growth, even in a weak world economy, will depend in part on a weaker dollar.

Is Tech Overvalued?

Ugh! Investors DON'T have access to the same information. In theory, they do, but time and cost of access are important factors that influence a buy or sell decision by an investor.

Yes, there appears to be less investor sentiment in favor of tech stocks, but here again, the sentiment may be based on poorer results from a few companies, rather than poor results in general. That's why investors who rely on ETF's, with their mixture of good and bad results, are probably worse off than those who hold individual stocks with consistently strong earnings prospects.

Megatrend Companies Summary

Many of the comments on stocks such as SSL are inaccurate and out of date. Ditto for SPWRA. Given the errors, I don't think the article has much credibility.

Wireless: Great Technology, Cost Prohibitive

The cost estimates provided in Ms. Mermigas' article are questionable, especially regarding the $200 billion estimate for converting to a completely wireless environment. Here are a few reasons why:

1. As wireless technology improves, the bandwidth required for high speed data and the speed at which data can be transmitted reduces the cost considerably when compared with present day costs.

2. An "all or nothing" approach to wireless fails to recognize certain legitimate applications for wired technology. A large corporation issuing payroll checks, for example, would be better off relying on wired technology. But smaller files that can be transmitted in a few minutes, or less, including high definition video, are likely to be most appropriate for wireless.

3. At the receiving end, as wireless devices incorporate more memory for storage of large documents, the probability increases that wireless will be the technology of choice for all but the largest files.