By Chris Coyle
April 27, 2000

Welcome back! I've been working the past week to create a new design for the site. I hope you like it. I'll tell you the reasons behind it in a little while, but first, let's have a little talk about the market.

The stock market has shot a dose of reality into investors buying the hot stocks for which they have done no research on. Of course, the market has taken out just about everything, even companies with sound fundamentals.

The StockChamp Portfolio has gotten whacked; however, "whacked" is probably an understatement. Both stocks, Human Genome Sciences (HGSI) and Research in Motion (RIMM) have taken it on the chin. What has gone wrong? The overall market weakness has not helped at all, driving technology stocks down well off their 52-week highs. Many are down in excess of 50%.

I also want to throw out another theory. Could something be wrong with the StockChamp Portfolio selection criteria? As I thought about that, I realized that there really wasn't a selection criteria that I used on each company I researched. Could this be part of the problem? You may be a bit confused, so let me explain it with an example. When researching RIM and Human Genome, I looked at each stock individually, not basing my decisions on any set criteria. For example, instead of looking for stocks with earnings growing of at least 20% a year, I looked to see if the companies showed good earnings growth without using a set number.

I think that a smart thing to do is to come up with a set criteria to base future stock picks on. Using set criteria can make the selection process easier and help us to weed out potential disasters. However, coming up with a plan will be hard; it must be flexible and allow us to use a good mix of quantitative and qualitative research. Most importantly, it should allow us to use one of our most valuable assets, our brain. Thinking is very important, duh! If we just looked at the numbers, we would be conducting a stock screening, and we do not want that. A stock screening is designed to take all the thinking out of picking stocks. Using the good, old noggen to interpret those numbers is more important. (Note: Stock screenings aren't entirely bad; they are good at narrowing down the thousands of stocks out there before doing more detailed research.)

Research is the key; always preform good research. Take your time; find everything you can on a company and analyze it carefully. Remember, your money will be going into these companies.

So what is a long-term investor to do? Well, it's time to PANIC, PANIC, PANIC! No, I'm just kidding. Long-term investors need not worry about the short-term gyrations of the market. If anything, this could be a great buying opportunity.

This is great advice for the StockChamp Portfolio. This is a long-term portfolio, planning to hold these companies for many years. I just hope to see Human Genome and RIM to regain there old highs soon. No one said being a long-term investor is easy!

Site Changes
If you have been to the site before, I'm sure you see an entirely new format and design. Our new site colors are navy, black, and white, replacing the old teal and white. I have added much-needed extra room to the writing space to make it less cluttered. I have also made the navigation bar on the left hand side of the page smaller. Please tell me what you think of the design by e-mailing me at stockchamp1@yahoo.com.

I have also made changes to the channels, which are located on the left-hand side of the page. These new channels show some of the changes the site will make to its content. I will briefly go through each one and tell you what will be covered in each.

• News. I hope to write at least one article a week on a major news story concerning the markets. This will add some fresh content to the site which can be published on a regular basis.
• Stock Ideas. This channel is for...you guessed it, stock ideas! Around once a month or so, I will have an research report on an individual company. The stock ideas will be covered using my stock picking criteria which is yet to be developed yet. I want to give myself plenty of time in order to write a quality report. The new stock reports will present all the infomation found on a company and then let you decide if it is suitable for investment.
• Industry Reports. This section will be for reports on specific industries and the stocks in those industries. I do not have a time frame for the regularity of these reports.
• Portfolio. This will be the same as before. This channel will provide data on the StockChamp Portfolio with portfolio purchases, relavent articles, and other informaiton.
• Specials. This channel will contain artciles and various things not covered in other sections. This section should add some different and unique content to the StockChamp website.

The one part of the StockChamp site I'm not sure if I want to continue is the Weekly Market Brief. I don't know if I want to change the format or possibly get rid of it. Please send your input on this subject. Tell me if you would like to see it continued, formated differently, or deleted by e-mailing me at stockchamp1@yahoo.com.

Why these Changes were Made
The main reason for the change of the site was the messy desing of the old website; I wanted to make the new look cleaner and more appealing to the eye. I also wanted to give more space for my articles to be written. This should make it easier to read.

Some of the changes to the channels were made because of time concerns. I felt I wasn't giving myself enough time to write quality articles. I hope these changes end all that. I feel it's better to spend a little extra time on research than to not spend enough time on it.

In case you were wondering, I still believe in all the picks I made on the site before the changes: Amazon.com (AMZN), JDS Uniphase (JDSU), and AstroPower (APWR). These companies could make great long-term profits in the future for shareholders.

In Conclusion
Well, we have gone through a lot today! I just hope you like the new design and format of StockChamp. Please e-mail me if you have questions, comments, or suggestions about the site at stockchamp1@yahoo.com.

As always, invest like a Champ!

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