ABSTRACT
Young students of the market will search in vain for Lotus, CompuServe, and Netscape in the lists of stock symbols. Internet stocks repeated that eternal pattern—the Tulipomania, the Gold Rush, the can't-fail-opportunity-to-get-rich-quick. It is almost impossible to resist comparing the speculative frenzy that took place in the internet and technology issues to the famous seventeenth-century mania that Holland experienced in the famous Tulipomania. A better long-term prospect may be in store for the internet, as there is a basis of technology and economic substance to the sector. Nonetheless, many investors and traders profited from the internet boom or were not severely damaged. Many managers and traders watched with envy from the sidelines and with schadenfreude when the bubble burst. Unless people have their professional speculator's license and have lost money on own a sliver of the deals before, watch the snake pit from the sidelines—and do not buy any snake oil.
