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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill/WA who wrote (2527)	3/23/2001 10:30:16 AM
From: MeDroogies	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

There are always a few who get away with "something". I don't deny that. By and large, it isn't as common as one would think, however. I'll give you an example of both sides: I have a friend who is married to a Wall Street denizen who is embroiled in the whole IPO craze. During the craze, she tells me about these 25 year old assholes who are taking their company public. They fly around on the company LearJet and talk about the new economy and get drunk afterward, then pay for hookers, or pick up on their groupies (yes, some of these idiots had groupies). These people were among the few who sold at the top because "they knew". These people are also why I didn't invest in dotcoms. It was a con game from way back. She never named names, and I have no idea what the hell these guys did, aside from "online". I don't want to know, frankly. But it does happen. Their story, however, bears no resemblance to Larry Ellison who is building and maintaining a viable corporation. The article you listed has several companies in there that are just about busted. The other side is both personal and second hand....I have a friend who took a job at an online company. A week after taking the job, the company was bought out for a huge sum. He tallied his gains, saw a large number and decided to retire. Did he have insider information or was his move a "sell" signal? Nope, just good common sense....and he was an insider. The personal story is mine. I got inside shares for a company I worked for that went public. I saw the number hit a figure I felt was absurd. I sold. Nice gains..and shortly after, the stock went to 1/4 the value of what I sold for. I felt "smart". Then the stock took off and hasn't looked back. It's now worth 2 times what I sold for...and hasn't really been hurt in the meltdown. I don't know if my selling was smart, I know it didn't involve insider information....it's all a matter of context. I took my gains from that and invested in ORCL, so I actually made out alot better in the long run.

To: Bill/WA who wrote (2527)	3/23/2001 9:14:06 PM
From: Cogito Ergo Sum	Respond to of 74559

"Some big sellers say they have so much faith in their companies they've gone into the open market to buy at today's depressed levels. One is Naveen Jain, founder and chairman of Infospace Inc., a Bellevue, Wash., provider of online directories. It had a brief life as an Internet highflier but is now down 98% from its high a year ago. Last month, Mr. Jain paid $2 million to buy 500,000 shares. But when the stock was flying high last year, he sold $192 million worth, on top of $203 million worth in 1999. A spokeswoman for Mr. Jain, 41, says the selling was just "to diversify his portfolio, because so much of his wealth was tied up in the company." `` Now... He has faith at the current price that it a good investment ( a realistic valuation) ? Why didn't he just hold for the long term. Oh I know.. diversification into real companies with realistic valuations. Maybe like me, he's probably got some energy, cash, maybe a little gold just in case ? LOL regards Kastel PS I do feel a bit sorry for that other fellow though. Not a good break that.