<THE FOOLISH FOUR>

Foolish Four Report
by Robert Sheard

LEXINGTON, KY. (May 27, 1998) -- One of the biggest watchwords throughout Folly is accountability. Accounting for all costs and including losing trades as well as marvelous winners is part of the process here. Nowhere is there a more accountable portfolio than the original Fool Portfolio, which announces all trades before they're made and publishes a complete archive so anyone can track the exact history of the portfolio since its inception in August of 1994.

If you're looking for more tools to help you in your own accountability, let me direct you to a discussion of Motley Math, both online and in my book, The Unemotional Investor.

But I'm not here to sell books (today), and I'm not going to give you a math lesson (today). What I really want to do today is set accountability aside in its entirety and celebrate family, spring, and another aspect of Folly -- a life that has nothing to do with the stock market.

For today is my five-year-old son's first T-Ball game and I'm not sure which of us is the more excited. No, Brenden can't really catch the ball well yet, and sure, his idea of not getting tagged out is to take the fielder on a merry chase that may end up going behind the backstop or into the parking lot. What are baselines at age five? (He does have a wicked throwing arm, however, as a juicy bruise on my thigh can attest.)

In the YMCA's T-Ball league, you see, they don't even keep score. There is no record of who made outs. And every child plays in the field every inning and every child bats every inning. What a concept. Absolute fun with no accountability.

In other words, forgive me today for not writing a defense of long-term investing in the face of a weak market of late. Part of being a Fool is also keeping one's investment activities in perspective. And today, I frankly don't care what my portfolio's doing. What I care about is watching the giggles and the bouncing five- and six-year olds enjoying pure fun. There are so few of these occasions in our society, indulge me this one. Go Indians (and everyone else playing games today)!

Current Dow Order | 1998 Dow Returns

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

TODAY'S NUMBERS
Stock  Change   Last 
 -------------------- 
 UK   -   3/8   50.50 
 IP   -1  9/16  48.13 
 MO   +   1/16  37.00 
 EK   -   3/8   70.38 
 
 
                    Day   Month    Year 
         FOOL-4   -1.14%  -1.95%   7.46% 
         DJIA     -0.30%  -1.40%  13.00% 
         S&P 500  -0.16%  -1.75%  12.55% 
         NASDAQ   +0.18%  -4.66%  13.43% 
  
     Rec'd   #  Security     In At       Now    Change 
  
  12/31/97  291 Union Carb    42.94     50.50    17.61% 
  12/31/97  206 Eastman Ko    60.56     70.38    16.20% 
  12/31/97  289 Int'l Pape    43.13     48.13    11.59% 
  12/31/97  276 Philip Mor    45.25     37.00   -18.23% 
  
  
     Rec'd   #  Security     In At     Value    Change 
  
  12/31/97  291 Union Carb 12494.81  14695.50  $2200.69 
  12/31/97  206 Eastman Ko 12475.88  14497.25  $2021.38 
  12/31/97  289 Int'l Pape 12463.13  13908.13  $1445.00 
  12/31/97  276 Philip Mor 12489.00  10212.00 -$2277.00 
  
  
                              CASH    $415.96 
                             TOTAL  $53728.84