ARE YOU thinking of buying a "new issue"? "The average initial public offering [IPO] doesn't work out," says Robert Natale of Bear Stearns & Co. "Typical new issues outperform for about six months and then slump, when you can buy them cheaper."

"Don't buy any stock now. When you do, resist negativity of disillusioned 'tech bulls' who were creamed. Then buy computers, semiconductors, etc." (A. Gary Shilling in Forbes)

"During the past five years, mutual fund investors got much less than if they sank their money in the S&P; 500 index fund." (U.S. News & World Report)

"Some pundits forecast Dow 20,000 by 2004, not unremindful of Yale professor Dr. Irving Fisher in 1929 who said, 'stock prices have reached a permanently high plateau.' Then the Dow average crashed about 85 percent." (Granville Market Letter)

"In these good times, we've lost sight of discipline that develops strong, diversified portfolios." (National Association of Individual Investors)

Here are "Best Jobs for 21st Century," from Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine: Computer-related positions, teachers, stockbrokers, health care providers, multilingual people who can work all night as global managers.

Pub Date: 4/23/99