Q: I would like to know what...

Q: I would like to know what Wall Street thinks about Circus Circus, the gaming company.-- Walnut Creek, Calif.

A: Circus Circus is one of the largest casino operators in the United States, with gaming floor space of 327,000 square feet. The company is respected on Wall Street for good management, quality entertainment and reasonable hotel rates. It caters to middle income families, pulling most of its customers from the Southwest.

The company has four casinos in Nevada and is opening a fifth in Reno in June. The Excalibur casino will be the largest in the world, with 4,000 hotel rooms and more than 100,000 square feet of gambling space.

Liz Buyer, an analyst who’s followed the company for years, says Circus Circus has the only investment-grade bonds of any casino company. The company doesn’t give comps to customers and gives them virtually no credit at the gambling tables. Profits should grow this year from the $2.60 a share earned last year. Institutional Brokers Estimate System says analysts are projecting average earnings of $3.11 a share this year and $3.82 a share in 1992.

Circus Circus has, in a sense, taken the gambling out of investing in gaming stocks.

But that doesn’t mean the company is a totally safe bet. With the U.S. economy slowing, Wall Street is getting a little nervous about gaming and entertainment stocks. If gamblers cut back because of hard times, there could very well be too much competition in the gambling game.

Q: About 10 years ago a widowed woman gave me a stock certificate that reads GTI (Guidance Technology Inc.), 50 shares of 7% cumulative convertible preferred stock, Series A. I never thought anything about it until I recently found the certificate in my file cabinet. Does this stock have any value?-- West Covina

A: The short version of what happened to GTI is this: According to R. M. Smythe, the New York firm that specializes in finding lost stocks, GTI recapitalized itself in 1967 and lasted as an independent company until November, 1985, when it was bought out by Rospatch Corp.

While you are probably dreaming of finding a fortune in your file cabinet, unfortunately you haven’t. Each of those preferred shares is worth 17 cents. If you want your check for $8.50, send the signed certificates to Pat Barnick, Rospatch Corp., P.O. Box 2738, Grand Rapids, Mich. 49501.

Incidentally, I’ve been swamped by letters like the one above asking about the status of long-forgotten stocks. While I will continue to answer as many as I can, readers can obtain information directly from such sources as “Capital Changes Reporter,” “Directory of Obsolete Securities” and “Robert D. Fisher Manual of Valuable and Worthless Securities.” All are available at the business and economics department of the Los Angeles City Library. You may also contact a professional service such as Smythe, which charges $35 for each company researched.

Q: I’d like you to advise me on investing $200,000. I have gotten different opinions on how this should be invested. I plan to retire in three years, my family is grown and I have no debts except for mortgage payments. When I retire, my pension will have to be supplemented by $1,000 a month.-- San Diego.

A: For advice, I went to Liam Dalton of Capital Hill Group in New York. Even though Dalton’s specialty is aggressive investing for rich clients such as his ex-girlfriend actress Melanie Griffith, he thinks you should keep your money in conservative investments until you retire and in ultraconservative investments after that.

Dalton says you’ll need 6% tax-free income a year to meet the needs stated in your letter. “In California, he can almost get that from short-term municipal paper,” which is now yielding about 5 7/8%, says Dalton.

But after you retire in three years, Dalton suggests that you get even more conservative by buying bonds issued by the federal government, with staggered maturities of two to 10 years. They pay a higher interest rate and are safer than municipals, but they are taxable. Dalton also suggests that you reevaluate your living expenses after you retire, because conservative investments like this aren’t going to allow you to waste money.