Pat, this is not directed specifically at you, just responding to the last message. I am looking for thoughts on the MM stocks, particularly NITE. I'm not sure what is a good valuation for such a company, but they seem to be reaping the benefits of the online trading frenzy of late.
Anybody have an opinion (preferably on this topic)?
Thanks,
Hollywood
Online Trades Rise 30% in 4th Qtr Amid Internet Surge
Bloomberg News December 18, 1998, 2:44 p.m. PT
New York, Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Investors, spurred by hunger for Internet stocks, increased online trading at least 30 percent since September, analysts and industry executives said. ''The world finally got wired,'' said Kenneth Pasternak, president and chief executive of Knight/Trimark Group Inc., which says it executes 40 percent of all online trades and counts Web brokers such as E*Trade Group Inc. and Waterhouse Investor Services Inc. as clients. ''It's novices trading the Internet stocks and feeling the power of the Internet.''
Individuals are trading stocks over the Internet almost 350,000 times a day, up from 250,000 in the third quarter, according to estimates by industry analysts and some firms. That's about 25 percent of the 1.4 million trades the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market say they execute each day.
Investors trade about 100 shares in each of these transactions, compared with the exchanges' average of more than 1,000 per trade, so online brokers account for only a small part of the $55 billion of stocks that trade daily on U.S. exchanges.
With eight trading days remaining in 1998, Charles Schwab Corp. and E*Trade, the two largest online brokerages, are showing increases of more than 30 percent from the third quarter, according to people familiar with the companies. A 30 percent increase would put the daily average for Schwab alone at close to 100,000 trades.
Other firms report even greater percentage increases. ''Our volume is up 50 percent in the last six weeks,'' said Pasternak. Datek Online Holdings Corp. President Alex Goor said last week the daily average is up 50 percent to 33,000 trades in the fourth quarter from 21,272 in the third quarter.
Full article at Message 6991838 |
