At the half year mark, Vancouver-based Starnet Communications which trades on Nasdaq remains the best performing stock in the Jan 1, 99 portfolio with 1,291% return (selected at $US1.4375 and reached $US20.00 on June 28, 1999). Actually, it rose to $US24.75 on Friday, Jul 2, 1999( 1622% increase ). Breaking through the psychological $US20 barrier could be attributed to announcing an agreement for one of its subsidiaries to simulcast races at Bally’s via the Internet. We think that this is only the start for Starnet’s horseracing simulcast business. As bandwidth constraints die down Starnet’s business should pick up. They have outsmarted Cryptologic (also in this portfolio) and are already known as the leader in their industry and we expect the company to continue to be able to make agreements to provide simulcast horseracing and betting via the Internet with large traditional partner companies. Watch out Youbet! (NASDAQ: UBET).

Isleuth.com - the network of branded, affiliate sites designed to leverage the traffic and capabilities of the powerful iSleuth (www.isleuth.com) meta-search engine - changed its name to The Bhub.com, with a new Board of Directors and management team.

Review all the performances below:-

In the May issue of the Newsletter, the comment made with the June 1, 99 portfolio was "Please note that it is very crucial to buy into these stocks at the right level. The suggested ranges are as follows: HMSK - below $6.50, FNCM - $5-$7, SOJ - below $1.70, PTI/TSE $6- $8, JAWZ - $2-$3".

Since then, I have purchased these stocks at the prices below and at the dates indicated, confirming the Investment 101 doctrine that "Buy the right stock at the right price an at the right time":

From now on, we will use the above prices to track these stocks. If you missed the prices, please be patient, opportunities sometime knock twice. I only had to wait for a month and in fact, I am still waiting for Pantheon Inc to hit my price range of $6-$8.

Section 2 - year to date performance of the stocks in the two portfolios

By the end of June 1999, the Jan 1, 1999 portfolio had gained a further 18.4 points to 159.3% on May year to date increase of 140.9%

The June 1, 1999 portfolio was up by 33% as at the end of June 99 as detailed below.

Section 3 - year to date comparison against the leading index in the world.

Compared to the leading stock exchanges in the world we are still ahead and that is why we believe in stock picks instead of investing in indexed funds. Check it out yourself:-

Be patient with your investments, price declines should be considered as opportunities to lower average costs, our portfolios currently show big declines in EKP/AL, FMI/TSE, CRY/TSE, FWEB, FRTI !!!!

As for the general markets, we expect a strong move upward in the near future. The Fed funds rate increase is now out of the way and we expect institutional and retail investors to listen to media hype and create the self-fulfilling prophecy of a short-term bull market. As for the small and microcap Internets, we continue to follow Jagnotes (JNOT/NASDAQ) and DrKoop(KOOP/NASDAQ) closely.