It was the grand finale of the 20th century, and the dawn of a new era, a new profession and . . . a new motive for murder. “Dot-com” emerged as the money buzzword, and Internet companies commanded huge share price premiums, driving the stock market to record highs, week after week in a raging bull market that was unstoppable. Investors loved the dot-com story, and they bought it: hook, line, sinker, rod, reel, and boat!
The Internet revolution spawned a perfect storm when the development of the World Wide Web, and technology to buy and sell stocks instantaneously on personal computers converged with a superheated stock market. The Wall Street Journal compared it to Las Vegas calling it, “Casino Trading,” and Barron’s magazine labeled it a “Wild West” gambling environment.
This pervasive paradigm shift to Internet-based trading fueled greed and the consequential corollary, a fear psyche that was both addictive and delusional. The hyper frenzied, speculative atmosphere that emerged signaled the beginning of the end -- that could ultimately trigger the bursting of the dot-com bubble and the birth of a new breed of speculator: the day trader.
Day traders took unimaginable risks, betting huge sums of money, sometimes their entire life savings, based on fictitious insider information, wild tips, and misleading data across the Internet. Their stocks were pumped through wild gyrations, as rumors and emotions relentlessly changed the direction of trading. Usually they lost money, and frequently they lost a lot of money, sometimes resulting in bankruptcy.
And, when they thought that mismanagement by the chief executive officer of the company had caused their losses, their revenge turned personal. Reports of high-powered gun shootings and killings from bell towers on college campuses and downtown office buildings became front-page news when day traders lost money and suddenly went berserk.
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Bradley Burke is on top of the world, as the song goes, ‘He did it his way.’ Bill Gates could have done no better.
The launch of his IPO for his Internet company: Webstar, was an overwhelming success, and he’s in love with the woman of his dreams. He had everything, but also he had three major problems: One, the woman of his dreams is married to his best friend, mentor and chairman of the board of directors. Two, there is a crazy assassin Day Trader killing CEOs of publicly held companies when their stock falls. Three, for no apparent reason Brad's Webstar stock suddenly crashes and he is in the cross hairs of the unknown.
Amid a maelstrom of success, romance, jealousy and murder, Brad is caught in a web of deceit and has no clue that the Green Shoe has dropped.
Brad's life is about to change forever. The question is, will Webstar survive and will he come through it alive? Brad isn't so sure, and others are determined that he won't.
Contact: edwardcaputo@hotmail.com
Website: edwardcaputo.com
