Buy, Lie, and Sell High: How Investors Lost Out on Enron and the Internet Bubble

Not a Smart Thing to Do

Entrepreneurs were not the only ones who ended up holding the small end of the stick. The other big losers were small investors who bought shares at valuations that made no sense.

In a previous chapter we discussed how the bubble was funded largely by retirement plans. When the bubble burst, many people were left without savings. For example, two middle-aged women working in clerical positions at a New York financial services firm placed their entire 401(k) retirement savings in annuities with a major mutual fund, believing that because it was a large, well-known firm, their savings were secure. But much of the fund in which they were invested had been placed in Internet stocks. When the bubble burst and the value of their ...