1.   But a flood of new stock ginned up to meet voracious investor demand has become a kind of wet blanket of its own.

2.   Drawn into the stock market by better returns, the tax advantages of retirement plans and the seeming simplicity of mutual funds, we have become voracious investors.

3.   Scores of firms, especially Internet start-ups, are taking advantage of a booming stock market and voracious investor appetite to issue publicly traded stock.

4.   Two sets of voracious investors who normally form alliances squared off against each other.