In another tumultous week, markets everywhere roiled, tossed and turned.

European confidence is low as financial institutions and monetary bodies sought to shore up the Euro. The Canadian stock market took an almost unprecendented swoon earlier in the week, the Nasdaq swept up and down in waves of undulation. Analysts still continue to feel that markets may have bottomed out, and we should start to see some supported upswing.

What is not typical so far of this market is the fall rally. In fact, it has been far from that. But there is still time as individual investors start to assess their tax ramifications and put a little more into those retirement plans to offset Mr. Taxman's bite. The Europeans have also been introduced to the idea of invested retirement plans.

Margin borrowers take their knocks, again: Many investors, both large and small, borrowed heavily on margin again over the last two weeks to "bottom feed'', as it is called, by buying good stocks cheaply. Every bull market that has hit the wall since 1987 has rebounded after a certain fashion, so why should it be different this week? Investing hopes were dashed in many cases as the upswing failed to materialise and huge numbers of margins calls went out earlier this week.

Borrowing on margin is done by using the value of underlying stock that you may hold at a brokerage firm. Your broker will typically lend you (for an interest charge of around ten percent) about 50 percent of the value of the stock. This is fine if your stock stays at the market value you borrowed at, say $40 per share. However, much to many investors' horror, when they really thought they had bought the stock at a low, it dropped even lower. What happens at that point, is that you, the investor, must produce more cash or more stock to compensate for the lower market value (of your stock held as collateral). If you do not respond immediately, the investment firm sells your position. You lose.

Will the November Elections help? Market street talk is that part of the volatility now is caused by five things: Elections, Economy, Earnings, Euro and Expenditures. Tech companies, particularly telecommunications, are now considered saturated in the market. This is very good news for the consumer; competition for your dollar is escalating as the price to deliver more and faster access gets driven down. When companies compete for every consumer dollar, there is less excess revenue to spend on capital expenditures, the infrastructure that is so necessary to maintain an edge. Expect to see additional mergers and buy-outs as the ultimate battle for largest market share rages on.

Another hedge fund manager folds (this one was successful): Jeff Vinik, the manager of Vinik Asset Management, a Boston hedge fund has announced that the fund will shut down effective December 31, 2000 and return some $4.2 billion to the investors. Mr. Vinik, if anyone recalls, succeeded Peter Lynch a few years back as the Fidelity Magellan fund Manager, then went on to start his own hedge fund company. While very successful (up 45.7 percent) in 2000, Mr.

Vinik said he wasn't shutting down because of recent market conditions but that he "wanted to focus more time and energy on his personal life''. Why do they always say that? Even Martha Stewart of "how to define every family's tasteful life'' fame keeps spouting the litany of "living simply''. Could we all spend more energy on our personal lives and live simply if we had that kind of a financial backup? You bet! Some more dot.com paper millionaires are not faring so well: What a shame! In a story reported recently in the Wall Street Journal, we are treated to some very classic cases of total lack of financial planning. Many so-called dot.com millionaires have now become members of the 90 percent club(worth 90 percent less than they were six months ago). Recall that dot.coms in the last year and a half were going through IPOs at staggering rates. Every day, a new hi-tech company was launched with much fanfare and stock bidding frenzies. Opening bids doubled and tripled before the market bell even sounded. Everyone wanted a piece of instant rich. Today, many of these companies have fallen on hard times; they failed to make a profit or even penetrate a market; unable to raise any additional capital, many are closing their doors with a good deal less fanfare than they opened them.

In the height of this IPO frenzy, however, executives at these start-ups headed out the door on buying sprees of their own, purchasing $15 million mansions, the right dining clubs, country clubs; one CEO even bought a fifty-acre piece of land upon which to build a mansion, modeled after Versailles! Times got tougher and these would-be millionaires are finding out that the stock and options that they own are worth barely the paper they are printed on.

Lesson: Wait until you get paid before you spend the money, now matter how much or how little you have. If it is paper wealth, it won't buy much.

Martha Harris Myron CPA is a Bermudian, a NASD Series 7 licence holder, a United States Tax Practitioner and a Comprehensive Financial Planner.

Under no circumstances are the comments in this column to be taken as recommendations on the purchase or sale of securities or any other investment.