The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

4. Sale Days at Sycamore

Things aren't looking so great for Sycamore Networks (SCMR Quote). The company, which reported its fiscal fourth-quarter results Thursday night, continues to lose money. It has hired Morgan Stanley to see if it can sell off the company.

"Our business continues to be impacted by industry-related conditions," CEO Daniel Smith told Wall Street.

Industry-related conditions. Kind of hard to pin that down. Well, let's just look on the bright side: At least the company isn't blaming the low-carb craze.

5. Scam Watch

We're thankful to the Securities and Exchange Commission for alerting the public this week to a whole new type of stock scam.

In this one, someone "accidentally" leaves a message on your answering machine explaining how she just got a hot tip about a company that's destined to be the next Tommy Bahama. For whatever that's worth.

The SEC says it suspects what the message's recipients are receiving isn't a misplaced insider tip, but in fact part of a carefully coordinated pump-and-dump penny-stock operation.

Frankly, we're shocked that anybody would listen to the message in the first place. After all, everybody knows that the best stock tips come from anonymous Internet message boards.