OT: Wow is all I can say...

[Kamog]

How did you make money on MSFT stock? It has been going down steadily this year. At the beginning of January it was around $26.74 and today it's $25.09. Did you sell it short?

Anyway, it's probably not a good idea to buy MSFT right now, it's still on a down trend.

[Thermodyne]

They actually pay nice dividends. When closing out each year, one of the reports I get is a stocks income as a percentage of money invested. The return percentage for 2004 (this year) was far and away the highest I have ever been the recipient of.

The types of profits that you are speaking of do not come from keepers; MS is a keeper at the moment. These profits are made from market changes, buy low sell high. My champion of the last few years has been Rambus. They get accused of all sorts of things by the offshore memory foundries and the stock goes to rock bottom. They have their day in court and walk out with huge royalty awards; stock takes off like a rocket. A few weeks latter it returns to more or less its true value. In and out in less than two weeks with 10%+ returns.