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Tech talk Banking blues Who knew what when?

The conversation quickly turned to what he's buying: semiconductor and other tech stocks, which he started loading up on in the fourth quarter. His favorites include Cypress Semiconductor (CY:NYSE - news - boards), LSI Logic (LSI:NYSE - news - boards), International Rectifier (IRF:NYSE - news - boards) (which I know some folks are short), Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC:Nasdaq - news - boards), Atmel (ATML:Nasdaq - news - boards), Tellabs (TLAB:Nasdaq - news - boards), TriQuint Semiconductor (TQNT:Nasdaq - news - boards) and Amphenol (APH:NYSE - news - boards). What do they share in common? "They all have cash and no debt," Olstein says. "And you have every analyst telling you to sell it, and they're all generating positive cash flow in a tough environment."

With Olstein, who likes to buy stocks early ("you can make money shorting stocks right after I buy them") you just let him talk: "Technology stocks are the steel stocks of 20 years ago; they're the engines of our economy, but that doesn't mean you pay 300 times earnings for them. Everybody is talking about excess inventories that could take as long as a year to work off." Doesn't matter to him. "I like buying them when they're down 70%, and I think each can double." But don't ask him when they'll double, because he doesn't know, but he advises, "You can't wait for a catalyst."

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But, Bob, there's a recession in technology. "We understand that," he says, "but the stocks are priced right and we're prepared to wait. Someday, somewhere, somebody will say inventories are down and these stocks will be up 50% before you get a chance to take a look at them." Reminds him of the oil drillers, which he bought in 1998. He also bought Reader's Digest (RDA:NYSE - news - boards) when it was down and out. Fine company, he says, but he recently sold it. Doesn't like the quality of earnings as of late.

Oh, and don't go saying, "I thought he was a value investor." Value, to Olstein, is buying something right.

But more to the point, Murphy confirmed the column's conclusion that the only reason Southwest included its January financials, and the warning in its 10-K, was so insiders of the recently acquired Citizens Bankers (and of Southwest, it turns out) can sell their stock. I stumbled on some legalese, in the SEC filings, which appeared to state that they couldn't sell until 30 days after the January financials were disclosed. Turns out I was wrong. (Drat, those lawyers.) They could start selling Monday, which may have been why the bank's stock tumbled 15% Tuesday, on unusually high volume of 2.5 million shares. And if they were, it goes back to my original question: Who wants to buy from sellers like that?! (Not that anybody, other than those who had read and understood the company's documents, knew they were selling! Another reason to beware of postmerger lockups!)