This is a long file, better print then read. ___________________________________________________________________________ ALL INVESTMENTS INVOLVE RISK, STUDY CAREFULLY BEFORE INVESTING. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (By joining the list, we assume that you have agreed the terms and conditions in the Disclaimers near the end of this message) Dear Friend: Welcome to join ICNET-L (Investment Club on network)! Be prepared to experience the excitement of the financial world! Let me start with some facts (you may have seen this before, if this is the case, skip forward): o As of this year, average savings account interest rate is less than 3%, average annual inflation is about 3%. o Average earnings in stock investment is more than 12% over last thirty years, and more than 10% over past 50 years. o An IRA (Individual Retirement Account) can deduct your current taxable income by $2000/year, and this $2000 would turn into $60000 (thirty times the original $2000) assuming the 12% growth rate when you retire after thirty years. o UGMA accounts for your children could deduct your taxable income by $600/year for each child account. Some of us had headaches doing the 1993 tax return: is my income fellowship/scholarship even the W-2 from the university states clearly wages, tips, other compensation, and with an intimitating form 8843 to file? I am not trying to answer this question, but I do know there are legitimate ways to reduce your current tax liabilities, and let you pay the tax in the future after your money has grown up. We all know the U.S. government has trillion-dollars of debt. Do you understand why some people are against the reduction of debt? On one side, debt reduction means more tax, but on the other side, have you thought about how the government borrows money, who are the creditors? The issues of Treasury bill, Treasury note and Treasury bond are some of the ways the U.S. government borrows. Now, if you own some government bonds, and get paid interest on the bonds which is generally higher than bank savings account rate, are you bothered by that the U.S. government owes you too much? are you worried about that the U.S. government's ability to pay you the interests? are you willing to pay more tax dollars on the interest for debt reduction? Finally, do you realize you could be one of the bond holders? What do your banks do with your deposit? They give out mortgage/car loans, they buy Treasuries, they invest in the stock markets, etc. What this tells you is the banks borrow your money and pay you a lower interest rate and earn a higher rate by investing. The thing we should know about is: you too can do the same things that banks do! In a market economy, everything complies with the law of supply and demand, which leads to fluctuation in prices. But this is exactly where the opportunities come from. Do you think those who made big bucks on Wall Street are smarter than you are? No, I bet you won't admit. The difference is PARTICIPATION or NON-PARTICIPATION. There is obviously risk if you are exposed to ups and downs of the market (it is interesting that, in particle physics, up and down quarks are followed by strange, charm, beauty or bottom, and top. Recent reports from Fermilab show signs of discovering of the top), but there is less risky stuff which could be made use of to keep you $1 to be >=$1 rather than $0.99 as inflation may do. Here comes another law: MORE RISK, MORE RETURN; LESS RISK, LESS RETURN, and of course, more risk means the risk of lose more. This group is intended for those of us who have interest in money and investment and willing to know more about it. It is intended to be a FORUM for us to exchange opinion, information and resource within the boundary of law; to answer questions; to help people who wants to get started in investment, and possibly provide educational material. You are encouraged to provide suggestions about these objectives. I think subjects listed below are some of the very important for folk who want to learn: o stocks/bonds/mutual funds o money market/capital market o leverage/margin/short sale o arbitrage/hedge o options o retirement plans o taxation which will answer questions like: o what is stock/bond/mutual fund anyway? o how and where to start investing? o how to protect a profit or prevent a further loss? o how to profit from a going down (bear) market? o do I need a broker? o how to find a broker? o can I invest just $500? o MUCH MORE ... There are tons of books available which you may find helpful, but books cost money, and it is hard to find the one which is just for you. The good news is that if you have usenet news access, there is a hierarchy of newsgroups misc.invest... which you may find very useful, especially the FAQs (Frequent Asked Questions), you would learn most of above just from the FAQs. If you do not have usenet news, I will be glad to tell you how to ftp or send you the FAQs. If anyone has question which is not covered in the FAQs, I will try to answer or post for others to answer. The uniqueness of this group is that most of us have similar background, are highly educated, and most of all, many of us share Chinese language. Those factors reduce chances of misunderstanding. I sincerely hope this a "FAMILY AND FRIENDS" environment. TOGETHER, WE COULD MAKE OUR LIVES BETTER! - From Gray Zhu, Ph.D _____________________ Information: --------------------- 1. What is ICnet 2. Subcription/signoff/help 3. Posting 4. ftp past messages 5. Gopher 6. What is IC-VIP ? 7. Management 8. Disclaimers - you must agree with the terms and conditions to joining --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What is ICnet: ICnet (Investment Club on network) is a club organized as mailing list (icnet-l@ifcss.org) discussing investment issues, initiated by Gray Zhu, and now managed by Guang Hong and Gray Zhu. Membership is free. Check ANNOUNCE, README, WELCOME in ifcss.org:/org/icnet (see ftp below) for more information. 2. subscription/signoff/help : send message to: LISTSERV@IFCSS.ORG and in the first line of the e-mail (not subject): SUB ICNET-L FIRSTNAME LASTNAME or: SIGNOFF ICNET-L or: HELP 3. Posting, send message to: ICNET-L@IFCSS.ORG => this list will be moderated (screened) by management as have been doing in the past. most questions will be forwarded as is, for answers. before you ask a question, make sure it was not covered previously (see ftp below), read the previous messages may be beneficial to you. 4. ftp: Past messages sent out is available for anonymous ftp, archived at ifcss.org (thanks to ifcss.org, Yuan Jiang and Zhang Yun Fei): ftp ifcss.org username: anonymous password: your-email-address ftp> cd /org/icnet (lower case please) ftp> ls (see what files are there) ftp> get filename ftp> get another_file ftp> get one_more ftp> binary ftp> get up-to-940528.zip ftp> quit (commands are unix style, there are commands like "help", "?") files are named by "YYMMDD" (year, month, date). You can get everything (which you should get) up to 940528 by getting one file up-to-940528.zip (type "binary" before "get"), then "unzip" (maybe "pkunzip", "gunzip") on your local computer. VIP material is not available for ftp. 5. Gopher: /org/icnet on ifcss.org, /ifcss/org/icnet on cnd.org 6. What is IC-VIP? IC-VIP is a group where I provide my personal recommendations including stocks, mutual funds, bonds, Initial Public Offerings (IPO), and possibly private placements. There is no obligation for joining IC-VIP either unless you buy something through me. If you want to join IC-VIP, send your phone numbers (especially daytime) and address to grayzhu@panix.com. I will send you information and recommendations from time to time, and I may call you up if there is something really exciting. 7. Management: Guang Hong (primarily maintainence, HONG@opus.mco.edu) Gray Zhu (primarily moderating, grayzhu@panix.com) ========================================================================== Disclaimers: a) Material on ICnet is for general information only, and made available to voluntary subscribers (subscription is free). There is no guarantee of accuracy in either text or numbers, so please read with your own discretion. Opinion expressed by any author is his own, not necessarily his employer's. Nobody on the icnet-l or related (Hong Guang, Gray Zhu or their employers, or any other members, or ifcss.org which is the ftp provider) except yourself assumes any responsibility for any consequences of using the material. b) You are free to forward and copy the material for private use. If you do forward, it is mandatory to let it ALWAYS GO WITH DISCLAIMER. Use of the material for commercial purpose without written consent of the author is prohibited. c) Any past performance examples should not be considered a guarantee of future results. Any company mentioned does not constitute a recommendation by anybody. ========================================================================== For specific recommendations and info on IC-VIP, contact grayzhu@panix.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ICnet - Investment Club on network __________________________________________________________________________ SUB/SIGNOFF to: LISTSERV@IFCSS.ORG, with mailbody as: SUB ICNET-L Firstname Lastname or: SIGNOFF ICNET-L Post mail to: ICNET-L@IFCSS.ORG Anonymous ftp: at ifcss.org, in direcctory: /org/icnet Gopher: /org/icnet on ifcss.org, /ifcss/org/icnet on cnd.org Managers: Guang Hong, HONG@opus.mco.edu Gray Zhu, grayzhu@panix.com (800)-289-2498 __________________________________________________________________________ ALL INVESTMENTS INVOLVE RISK, STUDY CAREFULLY BEFORE INVESTING. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~