No Duds Here As Lewis Streaks Ahead

Sun Herald

Sunday June 17, 2001

By DAVID POTTS, BUSINESS EDITOR

PAYING more for a share than everybody else is the unlikely secret of Max Lewis, who sprinted to the front as we head into the final week of this round of our tipsters' race.

Well, more a combination of Lewis sprinting and the only other tipsters within cooee of him going backwards.

Either way, Lewis has turned $100,000, divided equally between 10 stocks of his choice, into a gain.

Nobody can change their 10 selections $10,000 worth of each share during the four weeks.

For our two pros Lewis, who runs share trading software company Metashare, and John Aldersley, a fund manager who loves trading options this unfairly ties their hands behind their backs.

Stiff.

The rest of us need some encouragement.

Lewis only buys shares that his software shows are on a roll.

That means he always puts in a ``conditional buy" order to his broker buy only when the stock has risen above the market price. And get this. If the price doesn't rise, or even falls, he won't buy.

(Warning: mum and dad investors should not try this without consulting a financial adviser, Metashare or a psychiatrist.)

The secret is that although he's paying more than he could, he's virtually guaranteed the price will rise.

He's also turning insider trading to his advantage without, mind you, doing it himself.

``The smart money knows when a stock will increase for whatever reason and we pick that up," said Lewis.

``Insider trading exists and it'll never stop," he added, implying the rest of us haven't a hope.

Insider trading aside, even paying a lot for something that takes off is better than paying less for a dud that goes nowhere.

The result is that Lewis's performance among the 10 stocks is the most consistent of the players though even he has a couple of duds: AGL and Pacific Hydro.

It's just that his duds aren't as bad as everybody else's.

But the best stock wasn't chosen by Lewis or Aldersley but by the wooden spooner, our astrologer Doreen Daze.

She picked Metcash which in three weeks has soared 36 per cent to $13,641.

Perhaps the moon was in the right conjunction with Venus, or else she shrewdly reckoned the sell-off of Franklins would be great for the rival IGA grocers, owned by Metcash. She also picked the worst possible performers One.Tel, Open Telecommunications and Keycorp.

So maybe it's luck after all.

© 2001 Sun Herald

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