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Strategies & Market Trends : Trend Setters and Range Riders -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: smet~ who wrote (1572)	6/15/2001 7:08:13 PM
From: SusieQ1065	Respond to of 26752

Thank you, Rob...that's very nice.

To: smet~ who wrote (1572)	6/21/2001 11:19:39 PM
From: Susan G	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26752

No Excuse for Exodus By James J. Cramer 6/21/01 6:03 PM ET It's true that PSINet and ICG Communications and Teligent were all pipedreams. They had no real technical or first-mover advantage, and they took on a huge amount of debt to (over)expand -- foolishly thinking that there would always be a stock market to bail them out. They needed huge amounts of money to build out complicated plants and equipment and stay even with the majors. They had to spend or die. They died. But Exodus (EXDS:Nasdaq - news - commentary)? What's the excuse for the implosion of Exodus? What happened here? I mean, think about it, Exodus is really a bunch of warehouses with air conditioners, steel cages and some hardware from Radio Shack. Heck, we could be Exodus. We could figure that out. You and me and a couple of our buddies. Rocket scientists? Nah, those who have ever used an erector set or mastered Lego could build one of these hosting sites. How did this company take on so much debt and then just wipe itself out? Oh man, what a disaster!! The worst of 2001. Sucked in everybody from Janus (records show they have 60 million shares, but could have sold some) to most of the analysts who follow it. Dumb as creosote. We used to trade Exodus all of the time at the hedge fund, mostly to the long side because it was the greatest growth story of the era, allegedly. We used to play the Bob Marley song every time we went long it. Every day this stock climbed. It beat the numbers and beat the numbers. We used to joke that Exodus meant "beat the numbers" in Web-speak -- as in "they pulled an Exodus." We revered Ellen Hancock as the CEO who raised the bar more than anyone out there. And then one time last year Exodus reported an in-line quarter. It was one of those moments when Jeff Berkowitz, Matt "Deuterotomy" Jacobs and I were all thinking there had to be something wrong with the tape, some split, some missing number, some keypunch error. We didn't wait around, though, we sold it and sold it and sold it and sold it again. When we were done we shorted it and shorted it. How could this company not beat the numbers? It was a classic case of what happens when momentum shows the slightest sign of waning. I don't think it has put together a string of up days since then. Every move Exodus has made since then has been wrong. A business that should have been throwing off massive cash flow, even with the Net as crummy as it is, should at least have some value. But not with this management. This one is incredible. Just incredible. When the business school texts are written about what went wrong with the dot-com movement, they are going to have to reverse the order of the Bible. Exodus is now the first chapter. Random musings: There continues to be confusion among some of you about Action Alerts vs. Action Alert PLUS. A stock gets rated as an "Action Alert" if I think it is going to go higher. This rating, and its initial justification, are posted to RealMoney.com. When I decide to buy or sell some of an Action Alert stock in my personal portfolio, then I tell Action Alert PLUS subscribers how much I am buying or selling and why via email. I haven't issued any new Action Alerts lately because I want to take some off before I do that. The list is too long and I can't monitor any more stocks than I currently have. When I take them off or put them on, I will flag that in RealMoney.com. Personal buying and selling though, is told only to Action Alert PLUS subscribers. Why did we offer Action Alerts PLUS? Because many of you wanted a product that didn't require you going to the screen to search and hunt about whether I did anything with my personal account. You wanted it by email. The reason why this product is so successful is that I am trying to give you a flavor of why I make my personal moves, or what I am contemplating doing. The reason I keep highlighting it is because more people told me they like it than anything else I have ever done for TheStreet.com. Believe me, if people didn't like it, I wouldn't mention it in Random Musings. I could run a dozen testimonials I got today on it, but I am asking you to take my word for it. People just love this darn thing. Click here to subscribe. And, hey, can you believe how awful this Symantec (SYMC:Nasdaq - news - commentary) was? I don't think it stops down 11. thestreet.com