The Daily Dow
Tuesday, October 28, 1997
by Robert Sheard

LEXINGTON, KY. (Oct. 28, 1997) -- Peter Lynch signed a contract today to represent the Motley Fool as a personal spokesman, traveling the country to spread the Foolish Way. Amazing, huh?

Well, of course, it's not true, but it might as well be. Lynch, the legendary former manager of Fidelity's Magellan Fund and author of several investment books (available in FoolMart, incidentally), appeared on CNBC late this afternoon discussing this week's yo-yo market.

And what was his take? The same as ours. This quick drop and recovery is simply what every stock investor has to expect in the market. These drops occur, and it's virtually impossible to predict when they'll occur or how long they'll last. For the individual investor with a long-term horizon (read decades, not months), they mean relatively little.

When the market drops 10%, your portfolio will drop, too. So what? Unless you're concerned about having to use that money in a year or so (in which case it's silly to have it invested in stocks in the first place), the only thing that matters to you is where the market is in ten or twenty years, not tomorrow, or even next year.

Despite the Wise who sneer at our stay-fully-invested philosophy ("It's too simplistic; don't be such a Fool"), it's still the most rational approach for investors (as opposed to gamblers). Staying invested is the way Lynch made many investors a pile of money; it's the way Warren Buffett became a billionaire. They didn't make their money timing the market and trying to predict the future or playing the options game. They bought the best stocks available, regardless of what the "market" was doing, and then held on.

So, someone send Peter Lynch a belled-cap. It's great to hear a well-known Wall Street veteran telling it like it is instead of over-hyping the week's moves and trying to predict what tomorrow will bring. Fool on, indeed!

(c) Copyright 1997, The Motley Fool. All rights reserved. This material is for personal use only. Republication and redissemination, including posting to news groups, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of The Motley Fool. ________________________________

Stock  Change   Last
--------------------
T    +3  1/2   48.75
GM   +2  7/8   66.88
CHV  +3  3/8   82.38
MMM  +1 11/16  93.94

           Day   Month    Year
                  Day   Month    Year
        FOOL-4   +5.06%   3.93%  20.73%
        DJIA     +4.71%  -5.63%  16.28%
        S&P 500  +5.10%  -2.68%  24.45%
        NASDAQ   +4.17%  -5.06%  23.96%

    Rec'd   #  Security     In At       Now    Change
   1/2/97  153 Chevron       65.00     82.38    26.73%
   1/2/97  179 Gen. Motor    55.75     66.88    19.96%
   1/2/97  479 AT&T          41.75     48.75    16.77%
   1/2/97  120 3M            83.00     93.94    13.18%


    Rec'd   #  Security     In At     Value    Change
   1/2/97  479 AT&T       19998.25  23351.25  $3353.00
   1/2/97  153 Chevron     9945.00  12603.38  $2658.38
   1/2/97  179 Gen. Motor  9979.25  11970.63  $1991.38
   1/2/97  120 3M          9960.00  11272.50  $1312.50


                             CASH   $1167.51
                            TOTAL  $60365.26