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Strategies & Market Trends : The Final Frontier - Online Remote Trading -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Morpher who wrote (7486)	6/14/1999 9:54:00 AM
From: Brennan Wilkie	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12617

Look for a free level 2 MM screen watching, anyone know any sites?

To: Morpher who wrote (7486)	6/16/1999 3:40:00 PM
From: dave carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12617

Does anyone know if there are any on line chat rooms devoted to individual stocks/sectors? (ie mirc room solely for semi-conductors) Thanks for any info.

To: Morpher who wrote (7486)	6/16/1999 7:54:00 PM
From: TFF	Respond to of 12617

SEC tackles night trading cautiously By Bloomberg News Special to CNET News.com June 16, 1999, 4:00 p.m. PT WASHINGTON--The Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing to open discussions with securities industry officials on night stock trading in an attempt to coordinate a private-sector approach to protecting investors, SEC officials said. "This is a very complicated issue, and we clearly don't know all its ramifications," SEC commissioner Isaac Hunt said. SEC staff is putting together plans following calls by both the New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers for a cautious industry approach to extending trading hours. Some private companies have received SEC approval to offer after-hours trading to individual investors, and New York's Eclipse Trading has said it plans to begin night trading by August. "We want to make sure the industry approaches after-hours trading in coordinated fashion," SEC spokesman Chris Ullman said. "This is a priority." set a date yet or decided on the format, he said. The agency also hasn't yet decided who will be invited or whether the discussions will be open to the public, the spokesman said. NASD chairman Frank Zarb, whose industry group runs the Nasdaq Stock Market and the American Stock Exchange, said he has been told the SEC could start to convene a conference "in the next several weeks." The SEC-sponsored discussions will focus on three issues, Ullman said: investor protection, processing of stock trades, and "market conventions" such as how long the markets would be open and at what point trades would clear. SEC staff has asked the Securities Industry Association, the brokerage trade group, to put together ideas about what issue should be addressed, SIA spokesman James Spellman said. A securities-law expert said the SEC could indirectly stop Eclipse and other companies from offering night trading. "The SEC has a lot of clout, and it's hard to see if they're really pushing hard that Eclipse or others would really want to go ahead," Southern Methodist University law professor Alan Bromberg said. The commission has issued "no-action" letters to Eclipse and others saying it won't file charges against them if they offer night trading. Bromberg said the SEC could "make it uncomfortable" for the companies by withdrawing the letters or by pressuring them. The commissioners might even use the conference itself to try to influence Eclipse or other companies through public statements, he said. Eclipse intends to proceed with plans to offer night trading by August "because we've been gearing up for this for two years, and we'll have all appropriate investor safeguards," Eclipse president Michael Satow, a former SEC attorney, said today. Wit Capital in New York also has said it plans to offer Internet night trading before the end of the year. SEC chairman Arthur Levitt has cautioned that after-hours trading could pose risks for investors because there's likely to be a smaller volume of shares changing hands and more volatility in stock prices. The reduced liquidity also could make investors more susceptible to fraud, securities lawyers have said. Zarb has said the NASD could begin night trading on Nasdaq as soon as September but would prefer to be part of a coordinated, industry-wide approach. The NASD last month told its staff to prepare to offer trading in Nasdaq's largest stocks from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. PDT. Currently, both Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange offer regular trading between 6:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. The NYSE earlier this month decided to wait until the second half of next year at the earliest to extend its trading hours. NYSE chairman Richard Grasso said he wants to wait until brokerage computers have adjusted to Year 2000 computer concerns and the conversion to stock trading in dollars and cents. SEC commissioner Hunt today said an SEC conference also should consider whether staffing expenses could overwhelm small brokerages and the clearing firms that process their trades. Many small brokerages also have argued that they would be disadvantaged by a lack of staff in trying to handle trading during extended hours. One issue that concerns both SEC commissioner Laura Unger and Bernard L. Madoff, a New York broker-dealer who heads the SIA's trading committee, is how company news announcements would be handled. Currently, companies are required "to release quickly to the public" any news that could substantially affect its stock and "act promptly" to dispel unfounded market-moving rumors, according to NYSE rules. "Will extended primary market trading hours push the dissemination of material news or information later into the evening, or to the next morning?" Unger asked in an April speech. "Or will after-hours sessions merely have to deal with a higher proportion of trading halts than primary sessions?" While regulators move domestically to consider night trading, the NASD is moving through international alliances to extend trading hours. Nasdaq and Tokyo-based Softbank yesterday said they plan to create a Japanese version of the electronic, dealer-run Nasdaq market that would offer almost round-the-clock trading in Nasdaq stocks and newly public Japanese companies. Trading in these stocks, which they hope to begin in the fourth quarter of next year, could be open 21 hours a day, Zarb said. Levitt has used the conference format to address complex securities issues for which there is little consensus. Earlier this year, he convened a conference on the role of independent directors at mutual fund companies, which is leading to the formulation of several SEC rule proposals. The commission also has said it may convene a conference to discuss the agency's controversial "aircraft carrier" proposal to rewrite rules on company stock sales. Copyright 1999, Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved.