Seventeen years ago, I had a front row seat for the nuttiest mania in stock market history. I vividly remember visiting now failed companies like Quokka Sports, Planet RX, Women.com and Commerce One and listening to their managements confidently predict glowing futures. These firms, and many more, sold above 100x revenues - and they were far from the most overvalued stocks in the market. Other public .com companies had no revenues at all. Their stocks soared on nothing more than hopeful business models and lofty expectations of explosive growth.
I was in the ninth year of managing my hedge fund in 1999. It gained 8 percent that year, badly lagging the S&P's 19 percent return and the Nasdaq's staggering 85 percent (!) gain. In March of 2000, the Nasdaq hit an all-time high of 5132.52. Then, on March 20th, Barron's magazine wrote a much publicized article that listed every .com… Read More …