Our Portfolios, Ourselves (continued)

And the women make mistakes, and learn from them. At first, the women were most enthusiastic about the stocks of companies they liked as consumers and businesswomen. Despite Ms. Crockett's cautions, for example, the club bought shares of Home Depot. One member mentioned how much she loved their service. "It was an emotional decision," explained Judy Krull, who created the personal shopping service for Bloomingdale's and now heads Point of View Services, a fashion forecasting business. "All of us understood the company."

But no one could answer Ms. Crockett's pointed question about why Home Depot's earnings had recently fallen. Indeed, the stock's subsequent performance did not match the members' enthusiasm and - due to a very narrow stop-loss set by Ms. Crockett - the shares were automatically sold last month, at a small loss.

Just like many investors, the women now strongly favor stocks over other uses for their money. At a recent meeting, Carol S. Kogan, an apparel consultant and the club treasurer, urged the club to buy stocks with its growing cash balance. "We have too much money now doing nothing!" she said.

Then comes another investor trademark - preoccupation with the market. "Nobody says ëhow are you?' anymore, but asks what you think about Home Depot or Pfizer," said Ms. Felenstein. They brag to their husbands about the club's better stock picks - like AT&T - and they are frustrated that they don't know more. "They want it in a blood transfusion," said Ms. Crockett. "They want it yesterday."

Of course, just like members of most investment clubs, the 008 women have traveled no farther than from A to B in the intricate world of investing, where Ph.D's puzzle of market resistance levels and the Black-Scholes theory. And the 008's gains - about 10 percent in a few months - have come in a market that has shone on everyone.

But they are hardly the only people benefiting from the buoyant market. And - though their interest may pale, because investing's hard work - they seem at the moment to be eager. At a lunch meeting at the Three Guys coffee shop in late September, between bits of Greek salad and discussions of charitable activities and menopause, a half-dozen women are discussing what consumer stocks they will recommend to the group. Margot Green, who runs her own clothing business, is talking about Philip Morris. After a lecture by the club accountant on annual reports, she tells the women, she flipped to the back of the company's report. And there she discovered an accountants' note that the company had made no financial provision for its huge potential liability over pending tobacco litigation.

At the meeting's end they decide to recommend the stock anyway, despite the footnote and despite their belief may find the cigarette company too controversial. Ms. Green was sure the stock met the 008 investment criteria, including a relatively low beta. "Beta?" someone asked. A chorus of voices were quick to answer: Beta is a measure of how much a stock moves with the overall stock market.

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