The Daily Workshop Report
by Robert Sheard (TMF Sheard)

LEXINGTON, KY. (Mar. 12, 1997)

I outdid myself in rubato yesterday in my rhapsody on compounded growth, so let me perform my danse macabre today.

When Congress slapped Greenspan's wrist last week for meddling with open markets through his commentary in December and again in his Humphrey-Hawkins testimony about the now infamous "irrational exuberance," the Fed Chairman spent the next several days trying to claim that he had no desire, and moreover, no ability to influence the stock markets by himself. At the time, all I could think of was a song from Muppet Classic Theatre's recreation of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." After the young shepherd has worn out his credibility with the townsfolk, they greet his next "wolf" cry with "Who Do You Think You're Fooling? Yeah, Right, Sure!" If you click the entry for disingenuous in Webster's interactive dictionary, a film clip of Greenspan's disclaimer plays his justification attempts.

But a Workshop stock in our first-quarter YPEG screen casts a stone even deeper into the well of unbelievability. Since May, NATIONAL EDUCATION CORP <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: NEC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: NEC)") end if %> has been a proverbial dog with fleas. Ten months ago the stock was trading around $22 a share. Since then, in, by any account, a strong stock market, the stock has sunk lower and lower.

Just six trading sessions ago (the beginning of March), the stock traded below $13 a share. Through yesterday's close, however, the stock was soaring, up 33% in just six days. What happened? A miracle turn-around? Great earnings report? Un uh.

This morning the announcement hit that NEC is being acquired by SYLVAN LEARNING SYSTEMS <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SLVN)") else Response.Write("(Nasdaq: SLVN)") end if %>. Now is it just too coincidental, or what? If I'm to believe there wasn't some insider trading going on right and left in this stock, you're going to have to convince me first that Greenspan really believes what he said. And I'll give you better odds on Montana's chances of upending Kentucky in tomorrow's first-round NCAA tournament match-up.

My wife's right; I'm getting too cynical. So to restore my equilibrium and good cheer I'm heading to a temple of serenity this Friday for a week's introspection. (Okay, it's a golf vacation, but it's just a matter of perspective. Be the ball. Be the swing. Oooommmmmm.)

In my absence, MF Miel and MF Tools will be with you in this slot. While I'm gone, the daily results for the Workshop screens won't be updated, but the weekend database and new screens will still be updated on their normal schedules. By the time I get back, my Pollyanna view of Wall Street insiders and their schemes should be back in place. ("Yeah, Right, Sure!")

Monthly Growth Screens
     (Jan. 3 to present)
  11.92%  Relative Strength  
   7.51%  S&P 500 Index  
   6.81%  Low Price/Sales  
   4.91%  YPEG Potential  
  -4.20%  Investing for Growth  
 -12.63%  EPS Plus RS  
 -18.16%  Formula 90  
 -18.42%  Unemotional Growth  

Annual Value Screens
     (Jan. 1 to present)
   9.21%  Dogs of the Dow  
   9.17%  Dow Jones Ind Avg  
   4.90%  Beating the S&P  
   2.17%  Dow Combo  
   2.05%  Unemotional Value  
   2.05%  Beating the Dow  
  -2.06%  Foolish Four