In the news today! Dell Computer Executives sold six million shares last month! Are they runnning Y2K scared? I'm betting they are converting all that money into gold! Do they know something that 90% of Americans think is just a bump in the road? Bill Gates has been selling many millions of shares of Microsoft too! They are preserving their wealth, before the biggest stock market crash in history!

-- Freddie the Freeloader (freddie@aol.com), March 11, 1999

Answers

six million shares at the average price of $80 per share is.......Are you ready for this?????? $480,000,000!!!!!!!

-- Freddie the Freeloader (freddie@aol.com), March 11, 1999.

Freddie,

you're right. It doesn't do any good to watch the stupid financial channels or listen to the talking heads waiting for the end of the world. It's when you see clues like this that I become a little startled. Perhaps this is why the technology stock bubble has occured, because of a giant cash-in before the world ends. just wild speculation of course, but I WON"T be surprised if thats whats going on. I'm sure you have heard Yardeni's words about Sun Microsystems. Can you give us a link, please?

-- nightwatchman (watcher@usa.net), March 11, 1999.

I watched the financial channels from late August to early October when every analyst and anchorperson was running scared that the Great Depression was going to happen again, that massive deflation was going to occur,there was true panic on MSNBC whenever they went to a brokearage firm. I was scared, too. Now they have this giant bubble to keep them happy, and it's an illusion. Anyday now (course I've been saying this for months) that things gonna careen out of control.

-- nightwatchman (watcher@usa.com), March 11, 1999.

Freddie,

You may be on to something here. I will really believe that the powers-that-be are scared of Y2K when we start seeing dramatic rises in the price of gold. If the likes of Bill Gates, Michael Dell, and David Rockefeller begin to put even a fraction of their vast wealth into gold and other precious metals, I would expect their prices to zoom overnight.

I wonder if Y2K explains why Warren Buffett took such a large silver position last year. If it was, we may see Bill Gates follow suit soon. Warren is like a second father to him.

-- Incredulous (ytt000@aol.com), March 11, 1999.

Freddie

Don't put too much stock in how much stock Bill Gates is selling as he rgularly sells large amounts of stocks ($6 or $7 million at a time) several times a year. He reinvests it - a lot goes into bio/med stocks - last year he put something like $10 or $12 million into ICOS which is developing among other things, an anti shock med to prevent shock in accident victims and another that is supposed to stop the accerbations in MS patients. Both are in Phase 2 trials. He also contributes quite a lot to the UW in Seattle and to his foundation. Think in January he pulled out something like $23 mil to start a vaccination program world wide with the UN. No, I am not a BGates fan club, but I live near Seattle and I read the papers regularly and there he is!! Besides, he usually sells a big chunk off when MSFT splits which is due to do the 12 March. Would really like to know what kind of a back-up generator he has for that house of his - take a minor reactor to power it I bet!

-- Valkyrie (anon@please.net), March 11, 1999.

Freddie is a troll. Ignore him.

-- troll patrol (u@dawrong.place), March 11, 1999.

Freddie,

Do you have any evidence that this case was any different from the thousands of instances in the past when some company's executives dumped stock when they knew that run-of-the-mill bad news (e.g., earnings not meeting analysts' estimates) was about to come out and cause the stock's price to decline?

-- No Spam Please (No_Spam_Please@anon_ymous.com), March 11, 1999.

Hey Bill Gates and Mike Dell have to eat, too! Freddie you failed to metion how much stock they still own. Divesting your portfolio happens everyday (too many eggs in one basket) When you read that Gates has installed a 50,000 watt propane generator and has several 5,000 gallon propane tanks installed at the compound, please let us know. But for him to sell $100,000,000 worth of stock, is like me taking $100. out of my savings account, no big deal!($20 billion worth, I'd be interested)

-- Bill (y2khippo@yahoo.com), March 11, 1999.

It looks like several DGI's have responded to my message! Seems there are swarms of them on this Bulletin Board. Oh, well, this fall they will join the stampede to the grocery stores. Only then will they admit to their total stupidity!

-- Freddie the Freeloader (freddie@aol.com), March 11, 1999.

You don't get rich (as fast) just buying and holding. You get rich buying and selling. (As long as it's buy low and sell high.) Stock market in general, and probably Dell in particular, are way over priced. Due for a fall. Time to sell and/or short. Can't read anything about Y2K into the Dell sales. Just ordinary bear market and depression coming (with or without Y2K) :-)

-- A (A@AisA.com), March 11, 1999.

Bill Gates sold 15 million shares in January, the most in one month in the past two years. The other sell offs were in the 1 to 4 million range. (Dell BTW, shows as having sold 4 million last month, not 6.)

See Insider Trader interactive chart

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), March 12, 1999.