STAY THE COURSE REVISITED 7/21/02

In my recent news letter, "Stay The Course", I posed the following questions, "Are you feeling nervous and queasy?  Do you feel the whims of the market?  Are the whims of the market giving you psychological ups and downs?   Additionally, I stated that during times of uncertainty one gets the urge to act because action is more comforting than inaction.  How prophetic were those words.

The current market turmoil and financial crisis probably have you wondering what to do.

Should I get out of equities?  Should I convert everything to cash? 

How strong is the American economy given the scandals, layoffs, bankruptcies, terrorism and international crisis?  Part of the fear is that there is no place to hide.   

It is my belief that there will be more corporate scandals, new accounting rules and regulations, new accountants exposing old accounting and business practices--hence, more market volatility. 

However, according to the Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan our economy is fundamentally sound.  Therefore, given all of the aforementioned, my long term recommendations are threefold: stay the course, take advantage of tax rules and reposition assets or take advantage of this tremendous buying opportunity and buy more.    

Should you have any questions, please call.  Until then, I am 

Very truly yours; 

Victor V. James, Jr.