Selling the Hot IPOs in Your Past

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What are the characteristics of the stocks that are being hit hardest by this tape? I am always looking for themes, and when I spot one, I love to run with it. Lately, I have been fixated on the IPOs of 1999 as the virtual breadbasket of what's getting hammered the hardest. These were the companies that were brought public in the most superheated environment ever, and many of them are still way above where they were offered. It might provide an excellent checklist for your portfolio's health. If you have a stock that came public in 1999 and it is still way, way up from where it came public, it might be good to take a little of it off the table.

Performance of 1999 IPOs The 512 IPOs of 1999, broken out into performance groups.

Note that 63 from the 1999 IPO class no longer trade, either because of M&A or Delisted

The best of the lot in 1999 is Brocade (BRCD Quote), which is still up 1000% from when it came public. When you consider how much Brocade has sold off, you don't want to sell. But when you consider where it has come from, it seems prudent to take a little off.

Second is Juniper Networks(JNPR Quote), up a cool 800%. Again, when you look at the range, you might be tempted to say, Hey, that one is way down. However, when you consider how far it is has come from since its maiden voyage -- well, what the heck?! Take some off!

Third is Nvidia(NVDA Quote). People love this graphic chipmaker, but I think its best days are behind it. It is up 700% from its IPO.

Fourth is Aremissoft(AREM Quote), one of the enterprise software makers that helps Web companies. It is up 600%, and that makes no sense to me.

Rounding out the top five is Corinthian Colleges(COCO Quote), one of those private, for-profit school companies. How this company, up 400% since its IPO, stays up here is beyond me.

Oddly, I think the best bets in the 1999 class are from the already-trashed stocks, but most of you will think that is self-serving, so I'm not going to spend any time on it. So look over your portfolio. If any of your stocks went public during this period, it probably was already overvalued before it got to this point. The fact that it might still be up huge is a terrific opportunity to take some off the table.