Can't Get IPOs? Buy the Stocks That Are Hatching Them

You missed most of this week's hottest IPOs, didn't you?

That's OK, so did just about everyone else not connected to Fidelity or Janus or some other big institution. We all want a piece of these things, which means that -- the sales pitches of E*Trade and Wit Capital notwithstanding -- virtually no one gets in at the offer price consistently.

But readers who caught Cory Johnson's Feb. 22 column know there's another way to play initial public offerings: You buy the incubators, those CMGI (CMGI Quote) wannabes that fund, nurture and, it's hoped, take public portfolios of hot little tech companies. ...