The Daily Workshop Report
by Robert Sheard (TMF Sheard)

LEXINGTON, KY. (January 5) -- Beware of falling scaffolding and sleeping workmen, but I think I've got most of the material ready here for Fools everywhere to start playing with.

To the right, you'll notice a list-box with a series of pages. The top page is an introduction to the area and guidance on making sense of the materials here, as well as ideas on how you might use the screens we cover to further your own stock research.

The second page is the complete Workshop database for all of the growth screens. All of the rankings for the growth screens are derived using the data in this page, so treat it more or less as the centerpiece of the area. And if you're savvy with Excel, you can load these data directly into your spreadsheet and sort them any way you like. One of the goals of the Workshop is to provide you the tools to build a better mousetrap. When you've built it, all we ask is that you share it with the rest of us.

The next six pages are individual growth screens. Starting with the original Investing for Growth, then the newer Unemotional Growth and several single-factor screens, this series should provide us a number of topics to pick apart in 1997.

The final five screens are Value oriented, based on the Dow Dividend Approaches and MF Cormend's extension of them to the S&P 500.

The great thing about this format is we can add new discoveries as necessary without having to reinvent the wheel. I hope you enjoy it and look for my nightly report here in the future.

Value Approach Results

We only have two days of trading under our belts for 1997, but here's how the various five-stock Value approaches stack up so far.

1.49%  Dow Jones Industrial Average

2.23%  Beating the S&P
1.66%  Unemotional Value
1.66%  Beating the Dow
1.54%  Dow Combo
1.29%  Dogs of the Dow

Throughout 1997, Beating the Dow and Unemotional Value will be identical since the #1 stock on the BTD (Int'l Paper) list wasn't also the highest-yielding stock of the group. Under these circumstances, UV keeps the #1 stock and becomes identical to BTD.

Growth Approach Results

The Growth screens start with the rankings current at the close on the year's first Friday, so there are no performance results yet. For 1997, trading begins with Monday's session and continues through January 2, 1998.

Join us on the message boards for discussion of the screens, results throughout the year, everything that comes to mind regarding this area. Fool on!