<THE FOOLISH FOUR>

Closure in Closings
by Rick Aristotle Munarriz
(TMF Edible)

MIAMI, FL (Sep. 10, 1998) -- Brand me a sucker for symbolism. Maybe it's the literary wannabe sap in me that thinks that life is just one never-ending novel. So in the stock market I see storm clouds as sell signals. Them rainbows whisper "buy." Last week I found veritas in the longball. This week I see closure in closings. You see on Monday, as tumbleweed drifted across Wall Street, something spectacular was going down with Dow component Walt Disney <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: DIS)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: DIS)") end if %>.

Beyond Mickey Mouse having our own Chris Rugaber around, Labor Day marked the last day for Submarine Voyage at Disneyland and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. To me, the closing of these coastline bookend attractions spoke volumes on the health of the market.

Come Tuesday the West Coast would no longer be submerged. Come Tuesday the East Coast would have to come to grips with the fact that the wild ride was over. So, yeah, I called the largest Dow point increase in history. As soon as the phone company installs my 1-900 phone line I plan on going into the Wise savant business. What? Bad idea? Oooh, dark clouds linger -- I guess you're right. Besides, yesterday and today those heady gains have been wiped out and then some. Hmmm, let me try my hand at a little revisionist history. Mr. Toad was green. Oh, perfect. Green is dead. A hopping greenback has been squashed. See, I called the spike and the dip! Mr. Forbes, I'm ready for my close-up.

But as powerful as it felt on Tuesday to have the 30 Dow stocks, and of course each and every one of our Foolish Four holdings, soar in tandem, the 380.53 uptick in the Dow Jones Industrial Average was really just shy of a 5% advance. Historically, it doesn't even make the top ten chart of winning days on a percentage basis, which Bloomberg News was quick to provide.

The interesting thing about those ten days was that all but one occurred during the Great Depression. That's right, during our bleakest economic time there were moments of resounding optimism. The one modern era date on the list, October 21, 1987, came two days after Black Monday. And, well, it's awfully convenient that Tuesday's surge was the creamy white filling wedged between two very dark, very bearish Oreo cookie trading sessions. Storm clouds lead to rainbows. Sells lead to buys.

And Thursdays lead to Fridays -- when Ann will close out this short week of four Foolish Four reports.

Merrily on my way to nowhere in particular, this Fool has left the building.

Current Dow Order | 1998 Dow Returns

What Happened to Robert Sheard?

09/10/98 Close
Stock  Change   Last 
 -------------------- 
 UK   -1        39.38 
 IP   -   3/4   41.50 
 MO   -   3/16  43.00 
 EK   -2  5/8   79.00 
  
 
 
                    Day   Month    Year 
         FOOL-4   -2.06%   3.35%   4.70% 
         DJIA     -3.17%   1.01%  -3.70% 
         S&P 500  -2.58%   2.37%   1.01% 
         NASDAQ   -2.41%   5.75%   0.96% 
  
     Rec'd   #  Security     In At       Now    Change 
  
  12/31/97  206 Eastman Ko    60.56     79.00    30.44% 
  12/31/97  289 Int'l Pape    43.13     41.50    -3.77% 
  12/31/97  276 Philip Mor    45.25     43.00    -4.97% 
  12/31/97  291 Union Carb    42.94     39.38    -8.30% 
  
  
     Rec'd   #  Security     In At     Value    Change 
  
  12/31/97  206 Eastman Ko 12475.88  16274.00  $3798.13 
  12/31/97  289 Int'l Pape 12463.13  11993.50  -$469.63 
  12/31/97  276 Philip Mor 12489.00  11868.00  -$621.00 
  12/31/97  291 Union Carb 12494.81  11458.13 -$1036.69 
  
  
                              CASH    $754.73 
                             TOTAL  $52348.36