Speaking of 'Net n' Yahoo!, Onsale announced a deal Monday with Yahoo!
to provide services to the major portal's small business website. For
those of you who haven't been watching the stock of Jerry Kaplan's
company, ONSL has been extremely volatile to say the least. It went
from 22 to 108 in less than a week in November -- imagine quintupling
your money in a week! It's been trading all over the map for the month
of December. Geez, this stock is dangerous... ONSL closed at 64
yesterday, down 4.
Although many Internet issues sold down yesterday after nosebleed gains
the past four sessions, online broker Ameritrade (AMTD) announced it
raised the earnings estimate for its quarter ending Dec 31 -- and the
stock jumped 13.125 to 34.125 in one day. Tell me this is the act of
rational human beings... For the year, Ameritrade's orders have
increased threefold from the same period last year. Competitor E-Trade
(EGRP) also benefited from the news, rising 6 5/16 to 38 7/16.
But the most amazing story yesterday has to be u-Bid, up 50.375 to
134.50 yesterday after being up 31 on Monday. That's a triple in two
days. On December 16, this stock was in a tight range around 35.
Another quadruple in a week. Someone made a killing. u-Bid's shares
have risen 400% since its spin off IPO December 4 from parent Creative
Computers (MALL), which rose 11 35/64 to 46 59/64 yesterday. Incredible.
Right about now, it is amazing to watch fear and loathing and greed at
play with the more speculative Internet stocks. To call this a tulip
craze would be a vast understatement.
----
adam@cs.caltech.edu
When rich speculators prosper while farmers lose their land; when
government officials spend money on weapons instead of cures; when the
upper class is extravagant and irresponsible while the poor have nowhere
to turn: all this is robbery and chaos.
-- Tao Te Ching