After the Wild Ride

For a while, becoming fabulously wealthy practically overnight seemed to be about as easy as waking up in the morning and getting out of bed. That's the way it was for Jon Simmons of Fontana, Calif., who turned a measly $4,500 into $2.2 million in just 13 months by investing in Internet and other tech stocks. When he hit the $1 million mark early last year, he quit his job as a computer programmer and concentrated on trading. Two months later, when his stocks had more than doubled, the 31-year-old began to fantasize about buying his dream home--just as soon as he doubled his money again. He never got the chance. Within days, the tech stock bubble burst and, after paying his taxes on earlier gains, Simmons was left with just $100,000. His wild rise and sudden fall left him dazed. Often, he had to remind himself: "It was just money."

Maybe for him. But many investors have lost a lot more than paper profits during this long and seemingly bottomless slide. A year after the peak of the Internet-driven stock frenzy, what one psychologist calls "the fear-greed roller coaster" has drained bank accounts, delayed retirements, pulled marriages apart--and worse. A New York couple, who suffered enormous losses through day trading, entered into a murder-suicide pact last fall. George Schavran, 70, shot 42-year-old Catherine Fischer and the couple's German shepherd, Graf, on a desolate Long Island beach. He survived his suicide attempt and now faces a murder charge.