Farewell, But Not Good-Bye

by Robert Sheard
(TMF Sheard)

LEXINGTON, KY. (August 28, 1998) -- As most of you know by now, today is my last day with the Motley Fool. And as much as I hate to go out in the middle of a market downturn, all the news isn't gloomy. In fact, several of the models we've followed here are doing quite well in 1998.

It's true that the latest update of the Workshop Returns only goes through Wednesday, which leaves out a loss of about 450 Dow points over the last two days, but nevertheless, the performance numbers for the Keystone and RS-IBD models are exciting (35% year-to-date versus 12% for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index).

I should remind you of a couple of factors with the current database. As I mentioned last week, SunAmerica <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: SAI)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: SAI)") end if %> did indeed get dropped from the timeliness rankings altogether as a result of its announced acquisition by American International Group <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: AIG)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: AIG)") end if %>. And we still only have 99 stocks in the database because the 100th stock, Power Corp. is a Toronto Exchange listing. Finally, a stock that has been in the database for a while, AccuStaff <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: ASI)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: ASI)") end if %> is now listed in the Value Line Investment Survey with the name Modis Professional <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: MPS)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: MPS)") end if %>. Investor's Business Daily, however, still carries it as AccuStaff.

Many of you have wondered about the fate of the rankings after my departure. I can say with certainty that for the month of September, nothing will change, because I've agreed to supply the rankings to the Fool while they establish their own system with Value Line. After that, however, it'll be up to you to let the editors know precisely what you'd like. They're going to try to do whatever they can to improve the area. Help them out.

And last, let me say that I've genuinely enjoyed getting to know so many of you, and while this is a formal farewell note, it's not really "Good-Bye." I'll still be on the boards and will maintain my AOL e-mail address ([email protected]). One advantage for me, now that my schedule is changing so dramatically, is that I'll have time to join in the terrific discussions out on the web boards, as well. There are some amazing researchers on both sets of boards, and it'll be my pleasure to learn from the ongoing conversation.

Don't be strangers and feel free to drop me a note from time to time to say hello. Fool on!

Check out the latest file updates for the Workshop:
New Rankings | 1998 Returns | New Database

[Robert Sheard is the author of the The Unemotional Investor (Simon & Schuster, 1998) available now at Amazon.com and your local bookseller.]