Business  - Lubbock Investors must understand markets' risks
Published: Tuesday, July 21, 1998     SRC="" border=0
align=center>       Tuesday, July 21, 1998 Last modified at
12:16 a.m. on Tuesday, July 21, 1998  Investors must understand
markets' risks  If you closely analyze the returns produced by
the S&P 500 in modern times, no consecutive three year period
can match the gains attained in 1995 (37.4 percent), 1996 (23.1
percent) and 1997 (33.47 percent).  The good news for investors
is that with the market's average rate of return over the past
three years, money doubles every 2.3 years.  This phenomenal
performance has a downside. Because of the unprecedented gains
the past three years, many investors have thrown caution to the
wind and are disregarding the risk associated with investing in
capital markets that is the bad news.  For investors to continue
to enjoy the long-term fruits of the market, they would be well
served to understand the concept risk. Risk can be defined as
the uncertainty of future