[fight_truth_decay]

"Officers and directors of WorldCom received thousands of shares of hot initial public offerings from Salomon Smith Barney in the late 1990's".. so did many "valued customers" with sizeable investment..thats how you get an IPO..with often stipulations it be held for a 30 day time period of which time the stock is not generally at its peak as there will be sell offs..should one sell before that time may risk receiving another IPO...as far as "not remembering" would be better to have remembered with the above arguement. The media leaves out details often!!

[fight_truth_decay]

correction:60 days..and the word "give to WorldComm" could mean gave with an investment on thier part..could be $10,000 ..this story is full of holes..not that I want these guys to get off..I want them in prison for a long time..effecting millions of people ..but these stories sound like the media is desperate for news!!

[Quilla]

I bought numerous IPO's through SSB in the late 1990's. I'd log on to a real time quote website and hit refresh over and over. Eventually, I'd catch it on the opening pop, call my broker, and sell instantly. Rarely did I hold one for over 10 minutes. Curiously, our local brokerage house would only receive 50-100 shares total for each IPO even though they would request 10,000 or more. The companies that had losses in the multi-millions performed the best. I never understood the premise.