---
If You Think
Investment Gains
Can Be Obscene...
----

LOS ANGELES -- For those who believe money to be the only thing that's better than sex, adult-film star Asia Carrera could well be their poster girl.

Aware that her career may have a short shelf life, Ms. Carrera, who gives her age as 26, has emerged as something of a financial guru. Indeed, she boasts of her investing prowess on her Web site -- as well as in the pen name she uses when writing X-rated scripts: Dow Jones.

"Buy and hold, buy and hold," Ms. Carrera purrs. The recent market corrections don't disturb her: "Everyone's looking for a secret trick to get rich quick in the market," she says, "but that's not investing -- that's gambling."

Ms. Carrera began accumulating her nest egg in the early 1990s while working as a topless dancer; she quickly embraced a conservative investment strategy. "My biggest goof," she says, was placing half her life savings -- "a couple of grand" -- in Latin American regional sector funds, only to watch the Mexican peso devalue and the market collapse. She pulled out before Latin America's resurgence. "I missed the ride because I didn't have the confidence to buy and hold," she moans.

After coming to the porn studios of the San Fernando Valley, Ms. Carrera was crowned 1994 Female Performer of the Year by the trade monthly Adult Video News. Today, her investments, largely in index funds, have appreciated "roughly 15% to 25% a year," she says; "I'm a little Warren Buffett in training."

Ms. Carrera recently bought two of stock-picking maverick Garrett Van Wagoner's mutual funds. "So far this year, my VW funds are up 118% and 92%, respectively," says the star of "Appassionata" and "Snow Leopard."

Van Wagoner Funds Inc. was reluctant to exploit Ms. Carrera's endorsement. The funds are "open to anyone," says Managing Director Peter Kris. "It could be Asia Carrera or it could be President Clinton; we manage their money the same way."