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Show The Salt Lake Tribune BUSINESS Sunday, November1, 1998 S The Specialist In my brokerage statement, I noticed that my broker is a “specialist” in one of the stocks that T hold. It seems odd that the brokerage would recommendthis stock to me as a “good buy.” Is Something sneaky going on here? — J.E. Kuras, Durham, N.C. Stock exchanges assign securities to various members of the exchange. These members are The Motley Fool The Other Kindof Stock Scary Mistakes lost to the market average in the (young)livestock, and headed home with ourprize. People Make Eighteen monthslater, after spending $300 in calf food and milk, a few hundred on grain and hundreds more on special food, we decided to sell our stock. We \ were lucky,as prices were high and we made tidy profit. But the pain in labor and lostsleep kept us from trying again. — Henry Hekkala, Penn Valley, Calif. The Fool Responds: There are many ways to make money, such as raising livestock or renting out real estate, that require a lot of expertise and effort. We'll stick with stocks. While they appreciate over many years, we can spend ourtime on more pleasurable pursuits than tendingto livestock or repairing plumbing. sell price of the security. ‘The fact that yourbrokerage is ‘a specialist for the stock merely meansthatit buysandsells the stock for people. In fact, it may even result in better prices for you. Do you have an embarrassing lesson learned the hard way?Boilit downto 100 words (or less) and send it to The Motley Fool c/o My Dumbest Investment, Got one that worked? Submit to MySmartest When a brokerage hasto rely on someone else to execute a trade, it often costs the customer more. way to the bank. of wet noodles. More than 90 percentof all stock funds have make a market in the security by Processing buy and sell crders difference between the buy and truth about investing, and hopes you'll laugh alll the The Fool School With a couple hundred extra dollars in our pock- Profit from the spread, which is the Queen. The Motley Fooltells the My Dumbest Investment ets, my wife and I wentto an auction, bought 12 even buy and sell the security for their own account. The specialists Remember Shakespeare? Remember “As You Like It"? In Elizabethan days, Fools were the only people who could get away with telling the truth to the King or Our Mission: To Inform, to Amuse, and to Help You Make Money called “specialists”; it's their job to fairly and efficiently. To keep orders flowing smoothly,they'll What Is This Thing Called The Motiey Fool? Investment. Ifwe print yours, you'll win a Fool's cap! oe ecccceccceccee ‘Thatsaid, brokerages fre- Halloweenis here, so it’s time to scare our readers. Below are eight of the most common financial mistakes people make, taken from our book “You Have More Than You Think”(Simon & Schuster, $25).If it’s not too late, you should avoid making these blunders.if it’s already happened,visit the Fool online at www.fool.com and we'll help you recover. 1. Don’t waste more than a dollar a year (if that) on thestate lottery. Eeek. What a racket. 2. Don't forget to negotiate downthe scary interest rates on your credit card. Very few peo- ple in America today should be last five years. The index fund is the silver-bullet solution,as it has consistently cost less and returned more ues managed funds. 8. If you wantcandy, not a series ofrotten eggs, don’t forget to ask your broker or financial adviser how she getspaid.If she eams a commission each time she gets you to buy or sell stock, she may be working against your bestinterests, their hands and may try to pushit onto customers. This happens more often thanit should. Whena firm is a specialist in a stock it recommends, you should be extra diligentin yourresearch. You don’t wantless-than-first-class stock inventory dumped into your account. Better still, don’t rely on the recommendations ofothers, but do your own research and make your owndecisions. Q Is there any wayI can be kept abreastof your online offerings? — P.F., Lakeland, Fla. You bet. Send an e-mail to world in plastic fuel tank systems. You'll FoolWatch@fool.com and find about $126 worth of my products in we'll sign you upfor a free daily update. ‘every car or truck made in North America. Who am |? Got a question for the Fool? Send Knowthe answer?? Send it to us with Foolish Trivia on the top and ‘Ube entered into a drawingfor a nifty prize! it in — see Write to Us oS CONVENTION CALENDAR work its magic. meDonibe Bly thout dit res. My merchandise business is the largest in the nation, processing some 65million orders per year. Roughly ‘one out of every four jolds in Arnerica has one of my charge cai a Valso sell insurance. Who am |? (Answer: J.C. Penney Co. Planned Where Fool @fool.com or via regular mail c/o this newspaper, att: The IPOs Market Looks Grim; Brokerages to Take Hit Rus Attendance Throaga NEW YORK — 1maybe time start preparing the eulogy for a a public offering market Five State Beauty Supply Hairshow Salt Palace ‘Vigiin Society of America Bonneville B.C.& D. Little America ee Snowbird Wo eal ‘Winnett Exposition Services, ‘Women & Business Conference Empress Chinchilla Breeders Association reeAssociation for Campus J hone and the ternet is weakening. Others counter with a big ‘so What?” and note F that the company’s core businessis sGre Siea Gateway $ part ofthe core business now. + It’s useful to look at a business : Skeptically and from different 3 pectives, but Gateway crit- Ics are slicing the company up «ina waythatartificially cleaves os to Us! Send questions for Ask the Fool, Dumbest (or the businessin two. To us, GateSmartest) Investments (up to 100 words), and your Trivia entries to § Way appears to be makingits Motley Fool. Sorry, we can't provide individualfinancial advice. DOW JONES NEWS SERVICE ” ‘Utah State Transportation Reach Gnmen:Epa strong third:-quarter earnings. But some analysts and commentators are not yy with its salesresults, saying the cornBeey’s core businessofselling S directly to consumers via tele- 6. Don’t forget to be patient as you invest from year to year. Over the long haul, stocks have grown at a rate of 11 percent per year. There’s no need to rush; let compounding * business more robust by % Cee rceeeecccnescc cesses esesceeeneeeceecenevoceneeeceseees ©Copyright 1998 The‘Motley Fool/Dist. by Universal Press Syndicate Buflington Genealogy Association . Expanding the ee Peae has put much en xy into developing its Country Stores — paying more than 8 percent to help each other. retail showroomspermitting 10 percent annualinterest on 8. Don’t forgetto urge your customers to check out com Le Company . credit card debt. schools to teach kids about ers and features and then ° 3. Don't stay late in the grave- money. Youngsters have the ° machines custom-built from the | began as textile yard of credit card borrowing. mostto gain from investing. factory. This gives Gateway a companyin divine ProviPay down your bill in full at the Kids get circus peanuts dropped new wayto reach buyers. While end of each month. Credit card into their candy sacks once a more sophisticated buyers might debtis easily the greatest year, but they could be enjoying pete to order at Gateway’s world leader scourgein American consumer corporate dividends plopped into febsite,first-time buyers . in commercial helicopter finance. their moneybagsall year long. might wantto first touch and 4. Don’t forgetthat the mutual sales. My 65,000 employ- ° Avoid these tricks and treat feel the equipmentthey’re buy° fund braintrustis just a bowl yourself to a secure financial ing. ees help me rake in more future. Accorngto some analysts, than $10 billion per yearin ° Ooo cccsccccceoeceeeneeeceeceeeesesneseeseuesess sales from Country Stores revenues. Overthe past eight " accountfor the majority of the LAST WEEK’S TRIVIA ANSWER 2 21 percent increase in thirdyears, my annualtotal retum for | began as the Golden Rule dry goods store nner!in in * quarter sales. Naysayers cite this shareholders has averaged 26 per1902.A devout Baptist founded me. (An experienced traveler, he = as a sign that Gateway’s tradicent, compared with 17 percentfor held tickets for the Titanic’s second voyage.) I'm the nation’s No. $ tional business is fl ig. The retailer, with some 1,200 outlets bearing my name. | . point, though, is that Gateway is the S&P 500 index. One of unsuccessfully rival Hudson in 1996. In 1997, | ° carveting ani,ponssales bought the Eckerd ain and today operate nearly 3,000 drugs channels and that "re bot Name That quentlyfind themselves with too muchof a certain stock on Organization [TheFoo! 350 33 ‘Today Cha a dramatic turnaround Friday Friday in new-issues activity in the next two weeks, companies looking to Salt Lake faaHotel 25 Saturday Snowbird Resort 550 ‘Thursday Tuesday Salt Lake Hilton Salt Palace We Holiday Inn Downtown : first of the new year. If that occurs, the IPO market Se eculien einged at Eximaty Children’s Medical Center. oO percentfrom the second quarter, to #1. 5 billion from $3billion. “Tt’s going to hit the brokerage firms very hard, and you see that occurring in their share prices,” said John Keefe, an independent banking analyst with Keefe Worldwide Information Services in New York. Zions Bank has introduced a Visa business card that donates one-half of 1 percent of charges to Jocal women’s charities. Pinnacle Marketing and Communications Inc. of Ogden donated production facilities and Le for a new video to help learn how to em- Q ie, and help people with disabil- Mountain America Credit ities. The video earEnable Industries, which hires and Unionin Salt Lake City has donated $7,500 to help provide medical people with physical and mental disabilities. will be shut down until 500 Salt Palace Snowbird Resort go publicare expected to shelve their it until after the GIVING and jarring. For example, invest- ment banks’ underwriting fees in the third quarter shrank by 50 €Xpanding its consumerreach. Saturday Today Today 50 Nov.8 500 Nov.11 Vacca cen ae callow a ruay Y REM Wake eects Salt Palace n Utah Adventure ‘99 Salt Palace Nov. 8 mid-January, given the historical- ly slow period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. The volume of new issues is down sharply from the past two years, according to figures provided by Securities Data Co.A total of 321 deals have been completed through Friday, down 34 percent from the 489 deals com- pleted through the sameperiod a year ago. And newissues have de- clined by 55 percent from 1996. ‘The downturn in the 1998 IPO market and its effects on under- ds "Lot Berean Salt Palace Today Salt Palace Today Source: Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Buroxs Lands 'Lottery al S To Allin DL, Christmas just around the corner, the warm feeling of eggnog, sleigh rides and family gatherings BUSINESSWVERS FREE LUNCHEON SEMINAR are close at hand. The Newspaper Agency Corporation has made holiday shopping this year as easy az “Networking with local Businesses to increase Income oa Reduce Costs” The Salt Lake Tribune http:/Awww.sttrib.com “Give the rtesy ‘ Business ‘Owners N letwork. Call 736-8222 Look for this shopping guide in your Sunday, November 15 newspapers so you can catch the early Christmas sales and beatthe Christmas rush. Make this year, a year to remember! Gift in Great Taste! BeaesahCea FRIDAYS | Holladay * Foothill Sandy + Prowo CALL 261-3700 TO ORDER Adveriisers . Salt Lake City » Midvale * Sandy Provo * Logan + Layton * St. George can be used at ary of these Utah restauranta! Let them choose theirfavorite. theSLAYMAKER 5 * Pantera Hit G.LF.T. Family Conference writers already have proven swift |