The Dirty Thirty: Part 4

Editor's note: This column concludes the series by James J. Cramer and Gary B. Smith examining the first 30 dot-com companies to go public. Cramer diagnosed how each company has weathered the sector's storms, while Smith charted their progress using technical analysis. Together, they offer a thorough, if abbreviated, sketch of the dot-com pioneers. Smith's third segment on the Dirty Thirty was published Tuesday, while Cramer's final segment was published Monday.

---

As we conclude with the final five of the Dirty 30, have we learned anything? Is the lesson, "Don't buy bleeding edge stocks?" Is it, "Don't buy business-to-consumer stocks?"

Or is the lesson, really, that there are risks and rewards with any kind of trading? That you can make a profit with almost any kind of stock, in any kind of industry, at almost any point in time?

Maybe that's the moral. In essence, every single one of these stocks could have made you a wealthy person if you had acted at the right time and used good sense when managing your trade.

Remember, there are no such things as bad stocks. Only bad trades.

---

Watch Gary B. Smith and Silicon Valley columnist Adam Lashinsky face off at the first RealMoney conference, live in New York, June 28. The challenge: technical analysis vs. fundamental research.

Says Gary: "Technical Analysis rules, especially when my adversary is the pitiful Adam Lashinsky. Don't believe me? Then come watch me square off with him." -- Gary B. Smith

Says Adam: "Because I research facts about companies, I almost never agree with Gary B., who practices a form of voodoo called technical analysis. But when we get into the ring together, innocent bystanders generally enjoy themselves." --Adam Lashinsky

Surviving and Profiting in Treacherous Markets -- June 28, 2000, Marriott World Trade Center, New York City.

For information and registration, go to RealMoney Conferences

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints