Workshop News

by David Forrest
([email protected])

Alexandria, VA. (August 31, 1998) -- Hello, everyone. My name is David Forrest and I've been with The Motley Fool since October of 1994. Robert Sheard and I came up through the Foolish ranks together and I very much enjoyed his work. I hope that with the benefit of Robert's teachings, and a few of my own ideas, that you'll accept me as one of the writers of the Workshop column.

In the coming weeks and months, you'll be introduced to some new writers. Some may even come from right out of the community. Please accept them openly as they do their best to serve your needs. In the past week, our "Workshop Feedback board" has been buzzing with excellent suggestions for the area. You've nominated some fellow Workshop enthusiasts as possible candidates to write for us, as well as weighing in with your favorite screens that you want to continue to follow. I have a few things I'd like to tell everyone.

1. We'll continue to do the existing Workshop rankings, at least through the end of the year. At that point, we'll re-evaluate based on what YOU want to see, and what continues to make sense.

2. We'll probably be drafting one or two folks from the Workshop message folders to write some columns.

3. We'll most likely provide data in the form of a Value Line subscription and IBD subscription to one or two folks in the community so that they can continue to help answer questions, as well as investigate new screens and models.

4. We're trying to get historical Value Line data for you to use in backtesting certain screens. Not sure how this will work out, but we're giving it our best.

5. We'll introduce some new screens to consider. We'll also flesh those screens out a bit more and examine more closely the companies that the screens turn up.

6. We'll continue to question the validity of all screens and do our best to understand why a screen works and how we might improve upon it.

The real message that The Motley Fool wants to send to you is that we're fired up about not only carrying the torch on the existing work that's been done, but we're also excited about expanding into new screens, providing you with the data you need and have been asking for, and building out the Workshop even more.

When I think of a workshop, I imagine hammers and nails and lots of construction going on, trying new things, etc. What I like even more is the mental picture of a Mad Scientist's Laboratory, where beakers are overflowing, test tubes are clanking, and experiments are being conducted. Some stuff is blowing up in our faces ;) and some of the stuff is just incredible. Let's continue what we've done, try lots of new things, and learn a ton of stuff along the way together.

Tomorrow, Louis Corrigan (TMF Seymor) will be writing the Workshop column. I'll be back on Thursday.

See you on the message boards!

David

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

What Happened to Robert Sheard?