12/28/98 FOR THE RECORD: PAUL COOK

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FOR THE RECORD: PAUL COOK

Paul T. Cook is co-manager of Munder NetNet fund, which invests in Internet stocks. Through Dec. 11, his fund was up 74%. His views:
ON HOW TO TELL WHETHER A TECH STOCK IS A GOOD VALUE: There's no rule of thumb, but one place to look is intra-industry comparisons of price-to-earnings or price-to-sales ratios. Look for companies that sell at a discount to their peers and have strong balance sheets.
ON HIS FAVORITE SECTOR: I like the telecommunications industry and competitive local exchange carriers. The pace of the Internet buildout will quicken next year, and they'll benefit. Cable modem manufacturers are a good place to look. I like software security companies and online financial services companies, including E*Trade, Schwab, and Intuit.
ON WHAT TO AVOID: We like Internet companies such as Amazon.com and Yahoo!, but not as an investment right now. They're too expensive.
ON THE LIKELIHOOD OF A CORRECTION: This industry is not for the squeamish. I ex-pect a shakeout in some Inter- net stocks next year, specifically the portal companies.

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