Want a stock tip? Practically everyone does, and in 1998 the hottest tip of all was to invest in an Internet IPO.

Against a backdrop of sheer mania for Internet stocks - the Internet Stock Index (ISDEX)looks sure to end the year at more than twice the price at which it began - companies like Broadcast.com and eBay went public and quickly saw their prices skyrocket. Much like last year, the poitential of extremely rapid growth for many Net companies combined with a limited supply of stock made for generally rising, though very volatile, prices.

Daily swings fo 10 to 20 points based on partnership announcements or analyst recommendations were not unusual.

Market leaders in the portal, e-commerce, and service provider areas were generally rewarded the most. But there were times when the buying seemed indiscriminate, and any compnay announcement related to the Internet was cause for a price jump, as happened in the cases of K-Tel and Zapata, two non-Internet companies that made e-commerce announcements. Likewise, late in the year, more than a few market watchers were stunned by the post-IPO valuations of relitively speculative Internet companies like EarthWeb and theglobe.com.

Individual investor orders for these IPOs and other Internet companies swamped online trading companies' systems, prompting several to restrict the trading of these companies' stocks and to increase the margin requirements. It was an odd echo, in the retail area, of the limits on program trading that stock exchange officials imposed on institutional traders some years ago.

The strong end of the year was especially surprising since there was a period, starting in July, when Internet were suddenly out of favor.

The bout of bearishness didn't last long. By November, investors had pushed many Net stocks to new highs amid optimism about e-commerce during the holidays. Besides the offerings of theglobe.com and EarthWeb, Ticketmaster/CitySearch, uBid, AboveNet, and Internet America also went public. With two weeks to go in the year, and the market still red-hot, it would be surprising if there weren't a few more Net IPOs coming.