Before I do, just a reminder: WSS rules state that you can own no more than 20,000 shares of a particular athlete's stock. After a split, you WILL own more than this, by exactly the factor to which the stock split (8:1, 4:1, etc.).

WARNING:If you sell off shares, you can not buy them back as long as you are above the 20,000 threshold.

Tip: When selling off share quantities that exceed WSS' allowable limits, you must sell in increments of 20,000, max.

The Myth...
I have been told by several players, including veterans, that a stock split is the surest way to make lots of money. In theory, several factors lend to this argument.

First, it makes sense that when a stock is high priced ($1000+ per share), the novice investor may avoid the stock, feeling it is too expensive to get an adequate amount of shares to make sense as a long term investment. When the stock splits, the novice demographic will form a surge in buy volume on the stock (moo), thus driving the newly lowered price upward.

Second, it seems logical to assume that if a stock reached $1000 before, it would quite possibly reach that level again. This thinking would also lead to a "buy" moo, of sorts, on the stock.

...The Reality
For the people with very large ports (maybe $100+ million), buying and holding all splits makes sense. This is because it would be otherwise very difficult, if not impossible, to spend ALL of your money on the limited number of productive stocks on a nightly basis.

For smaller ports, such as mine ($83 million on 1/10/01), having $20 million "tied up" in a single stock, regardless of the number of shares represented, means there is $20 million less to invest on the big performers any given night.

Veterans know that it is rare that the same stock will bring great returns on simultaneous nights. That $20 million could sit dormant days at a time, while you watch passed up buys bring returns of 15, 20 and 25% in the morning. When the stock in question DOES have a big night, it will all seem worth it, but if you do the math, it just does not make good fiscal sense to hold it.

As a rule of math, $20 million getting a 10% bonus will still be the same whether that $20 million represents ten shares or ten million. Holding a split gives you a relative edge over those who do not.

The Advantage for the Small Port
Where does the split help the smaller ports? Well....the simple truth is that holding onto a split in a small port merely gives you an advantage over those with similar sized ports who did not own the stock as it split.

Should the stock have a big night on the night OF the split, you would not otherwise be able to invest as much money in that particular stock as already have (i.e. You would have $20 million working for you, while the other guy may have only $5 million) and the opportunity would exist to distance yourself from the pack. The advantage is, simply, a "relative" one, and temporary, at best.

It soon becomes obvious that any advantage is short lived, especially if the stock does not perform for several nights. You may have missed out (due to lack of liquidity) on buying five different stocks in a given night that could net a return of 20%, and this scenario could occur several nights in a row, while your $20 million gets a profitable, yet modest 3% nightly return.

Yes, friends, after a split you can never buy as many shares of a particular stock as you own in it already.