Blodget, Inc.

Merrill Lynch Internet analyst Henry Blodget's stock picks haven,t done too well lately. Maybe he,ll have more luck as a writer. Blodget, who put himself on the map by touting online bookseller Amazon.com as a $400 stock (it hit the bogey, split-adjusted, within three weeks of the December 1998 call), has his own book in the works. "It will tell the story of the last five years , if I can get it done," says the 34-year-old chastened bull, who hopes to reach a more general audience with a forward-spinning history lesson. "This is still only the beginning. The Internet is where television was in 1950 or radio in 1927 or the telephone in 1885," he says. "The Internet is the right place to be today." Of course, with Internet stocks melting down, along with the reputations of the analysts who cover them, online gurus can do little but look to the future. "Wait another couple of quarters for most of the bubble to shake out," advises Blodget. "And then hold for three to five years."