Nasdaq 5000: Brave Look Back
Editor's Note: This is a bonus story from Gary B. Smith, whose commentary usually appears only on
RealMoney
. We're offering it today to
TheStreet.com
readers. The story published on RealMoney at 8:43 a.m. EST on March 8. To read Smith's commentary regularly, please click here for information about a free trial to
RealMoney.
The press has been all over this
Nasdaq
5000 anniversary, and after reading more than a few articles on the subject, here is what I've gleaned:
Apparently, everyone bought exactly at the top and held all the way down, not selling until the market bottomed.
Only stupid people bought tech stocks. Smart people bought blue-chip stocks paying good dividends. Warren Buffett is, of course, the quintessential "smart person."
Not one person who shorted a tech stock made money on it.
In fact, no one made any money with tech stocks from 2000 through 2002.
Every CEO of a tech company was either (a) an idiot or (b) a liar.
The bubble was pretty much the fault of all the Wall Street analysts.
For the next 100 years, whenever the Nasdaq goes up, it's a bubble.
Whenever folks get excited about anything, it's the sign of a top. Unless, of course, we're talking about Warren Buffett's confab!
Today, the
Nasdaq Composite
:
Kindred Healthcare
,
AudioCodes
,
Xerox
,
Marvell Technology
and
Polycom
.
Charts produced by TC2000, which is a registered trademark of
Worden Brothers Inc.
And that is the final word from Dupont University, where you should know ahead of time that I'm a fan of Tom Wolfe. With that out of the way, I thoroughly enjoyed his latest book --
I Am Charlotte Simmons
-- although I can understand it's not for everyone. It's fairly close, though, in quality to
The Bonfire of the Vanities
and
A Man in Full.
Gary B. Smith is a freelance writer who trades for his own account from his Maryland home using technical analysis. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks.
Smith writes a daily technical analysis column for RealMoney.com and also produces a daily premium product for TheStreet.com called The Chartman's Top Stocks --
click here for a free two-week trial. While Gary cannot provide investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send your feedback to
gsmith@thestreet.com.
TheStreet.com has a revenue-sharing relationship with Amazon.com under which it receives a portion of the revenue from Amazon purchases by customers directed there from TheStreet.com.