puteranimation.com

There's so much babble about Internet stocks everywhere from oldline financial magazines to Web sites to dozens of pundits who no zero about the Internet that let's clear up some of the fog.

The basic problems of the pundits in a box popping up on TV, magazines, etc. 1) they don't know how to value Internet stocks; 2) they don't understand the Internet industry; 3) they don't seem to put in the time to understand points 1 and 2.

On point 1 basic discounted cash flow and earnings modeling is the way to do it, using imputed growth for the industry, sector and company. We combine these with the metrics we created to value digital assets. On point 2 the fundamental observation that the Internet is touching all aspects of consumer and corporate life is the "Main Street" litmus for industry growth. In other words, the Internet is close to being on Main Street, while right now it's moving away from Geek Avenue.

Issues and hurdles that may be overcome to pave the way for the mainstream Internet experience: a) too much techno-babble; b) PCs are not intuitive; c) Web navigation is not intuitive or natural language (why should your grandma be typing "http" or "www.anythinginalongstrongofletters.com" which is why Centraal real naming looks promising; d) finding relevant info and products is daunting, overwhelming and too time consuming; e) early adopters are not mainstream demographics, so targeting and building a Web for tech-heads is not going to bring masses online.

Today's market snapshot:

	22-Jan-99	point change	% change
ISDEX	321.66	11.63	3.75%
NASDAQ	2,338.80	-5.92	-0.25%
DJIA	9,120.67	-143.41	-1.55%

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Harmon's Hotwatch '99 - the 10 stocks to watch in the Internet space - last year's watch group was up more than 300%

for 1999 it's now available as a monthly paid newsletter sent direct to your email box - click here for details -