SHORT INTERESTS: TIPS, TRENDS, OBSERVATIONS

Nothing to brag about

Swirling in the sea of self-help investment books comes the latest edition of “Starting and Running a Profitable Investment Club,” which is being touted as being “From the people who taught the Beardstown Ladies.” Talk about bad timing.

Those are the same little old ladies whose miscalculations had America believing their strategy of squirreling away $25 a month into stocks was earning a 23.4% average annual return. Oops. On closer inspection, we learned it was really 9%.

“They made a mistake,” says Martha Stephens, director of advertising for the National Association of Investors Corp., whose honchos wrote the book. “Their investment principles remain sound.”

The Madison Heights, Mich., organization offers education for investment clubs and investors. Authors Thomas E. O’Hara, who chairs the organization, and Kenneth S. Janke Sr., president, were unavailable for comment.

Growing pains

Only days after merger announcements between Banc One Corp. and First Chicago NBD, both banks’ chairmen were already arguing about the next step. Banc One’s John McCoy told the Chicago Tribune he’d like to buy a retail brokerage, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., say. First Chicago’s Verne G. Istock said he isn’t interested so Mr. McCoy called him conservative, according to the article. A Morgan Stanley spokesman says it never comments on acquisition talk.

Can’t get enough of Schwab

Transamerica Corp.’s 21/2-year-old mutual fund family is known for making concentrated bets on a few stocks. So when portfolio managers for the over $400 million-asset complex pick a company, it’s typically their favorite name in an industry. One of only four financial services stocks owned by Transamerica Premier Aggressive Growth Fund is Charles Schwab & Co., which is 1.4% of assets.

Philip Treick, vice president and portfolio manager, says he would own more if he could — but he can’t. At least not at the moment.

“There’s no question there are times when the window isn’t open because we don’t get clearance from Schwab’s counsel or our counsel,” says chief investment officer Richard Latzer. The firm is careful about insider trading rules given that its CEO, Frank Herringer, sits on Schwab’s board.

And parent Transamerica Corp., which manages $5 billion in equities and $30 billion in bonds, already is Schwab’s biggest public shareholder, with 5.25% of the company as of Feb. 17.

The limitation hasn’t hurt so far: Aggressive Growth was up 29.39% through April 10 while Mr. Treick’s other portfolio, Small Company Fund, was up 23.94%. Mr. Treick says the no-loads are selling quite nicely, thanks, in part, to distribution through a fund supermarket run by guess who.

Howard Kapiloff and Marlene Givant Star