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Non-Tech : Knight/Trimark Group, Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Muthusamy SELVARAJU who wrote (1840)	6/26/1999 9:47:00 AM
From: HeatherN	Respond to of 10027

Lucky you to be in Hong Kong now, one of my favorite cities.:) I cannot address all your points, I will give you one view on barriers to entry. (FWIW). NITE operates as a market maker and offers tremendous liquidity. Although there will most certainly be a role for ECNs, it requires a huge amount of capital to act as an intermediary. When a large buy order is placed through NITE, they don't have to look for specific sellers at that price. They will use shares that they have or buy from sellers. They take the risk buy covering shares that they may not have, but they also profit from that transaction. An ECN, on the other hand must link specific buyers and sellers and due to the structure of this system, it can be much less liquid. THis is seen not so much with heavily traded stocks such as AOL, INTC etc but with those that may trade much smaller numbers. Each system has advantages, but I doubt that ECNs will overtake MMs. The liquidity needs to be there for orderly market function and NITE provides this. HeatherN

To: Muthusamy SELVARAJU who wrote (1840)	6/26/1999 12:19:00 PM
From: Patherzen	Respond to of 10027

Muthusamy: Greetings in Hong Kong. While I am certainly not an authority on NITE and its technology I will offer up some of my research to your strategic assessment question with links I have found to address them. (part 1 of 4)... (not including other new companies that emerge)... also see nasdaqtrader.com (for volume of NITE) 1) competition: (from stockselector) Other companies within the industry. Company Description Chapman Holdings African-American owned and controlled full service securities brokerage and investment banking firm. H.D. Vest Inc Organized for the purpose of investing in financial service companies and providing management services to such companies as well as other entities. Its subsidiaries are engaged primarily in the securities brokerage and related financial svcs. industry. Interstate/Johnson Engages in securities and futures brokerage for individual and institutional investors, market-making and underwriting of municipal and corporate securities, investment management, investment banking and other financial advisory services. JWGenesis Financl Provides a wide range of securities brokerage and investment services to a diversified client base, delivers a broad range of clearing services to affiliated and independent broker-dealers, and provides investment banking services to corporate clients. Kent Financial Svcs Principal business is the operation of its wholly-owned subsidiary, T.R. Winston & Company, Inc., a securities broker-dealer licensed in all states (except Alaska) and Washington D.C. Kirlin Holdings Cp Holding company engaged in securities brokerage, securities trading and investment banking through the Kirlin Securities, Inc. Laser Mrtgage Mgt Specialty finance company that invests primarily in mortgage-backed securities and mortgage loans. Maxcor Fincl Grp Leading domestic and international inter-dealer brokerage firm, specializing in emerging market debt, money market instruments, derivatives, natural gas and electricity, repurchase agreements and other fixed income securities. Paulson Engaged in the purchase and sale of securities (from and to the public and for its own account), trading and market making, and in investment banking activities. From Motley Fool: Who are NITE's competitors? Competition comes primarily from two sources: 1) Other Market Makers: For Knight competitors, see: www.knight-sec.com/knight/index.html For Trimark competitors, see: www.knight-sec.com/trimark/index.html 2) Electronic Communications Networks (ECN's) such as Island and Archipelago. The effect of ECN's on Market Makers has been debated on this board and in other forums. See the links below for more information. Note also that NITE is part owner of BRUT ECN. For more info on ECN's, see below: boards.fool.com boards.fool.com boards.fool.com boards.fool.com www.knight-sec.com/investor/news/11199b.html www.knight-sec.com/investor/news/ELEMENTS_OF_BEST_EXECUTION1.doc

To: Muthusamy SELVARAJU who wrote (1840)	6/26/1999 12:39:00 PM
From: Patherzen	Respond to of 10027

Parts 2- Might as well just post the entire Motley Fool post on NITE which gives so many links it will save me my weekend!! lol Patherzen Stocks K / Knight/Trimark Group, Inc. (NITE) Quote News Estimates Chart Snapshot Financials Sec Filings Post New • Post Reply Prev • Next Subject: NITE FAQ's Date: 4/14/99 1:08 PM Author: Moose1010 Number: of 3291 These are the FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) for Knight/Trimark (NITE). Please review the info presented here, check out the links, and read the past few hundred messages. If you still have questions (and we know you will), post a message and your fellow Fools will do their best to help. What is NITE? Knight/Trimark Group is the largest market maker in both NASDAQ securities and the over-the-counter market for New York Stock Exchange- and American Stock Exchange-listed securities. It is the parent company of Knight Securities, which trades NASDAQ and OTC Bulletin Board (OTCBB) securities, and Trimark Securities, which trades NYSE- and AMEX-listed securities. Okay, what's a Market Maker (MM)? Market Makers (often referred to on the Fool Boards as "@%$#^&$ Market Makers) are firms that "maintain a firm bid and offer price in a given security by standing ready to buy or sell at publicly-quoted prices. The Nasdaq Stock Market is a decentralized network of competitive Market Makers. Market Makers process orders for their own customers, and for other NASD broker/dealers; all NASD securities are traded through Market Maker firms. Market Makers also will buy securities from issuers for resale to customers or other broker/dealers. About 10 percent of NASD firms are Market Makers; a broker/dealer may become a Market Maker if the firm meets capitalization standards set down by NASD." (definition from www.indra.com) For another definition, see: www.nasdaqtrader.com/trader/tradingservices/marketparticipant/marketmaker.stm Basically, if you place an order with a broker to buy or sell a stock, the broker usually (but not always) passes on the order to a Market Maker, who does the actual buying and selling. How long has NITE been in business? Knight/Trimark Group (formerly known as Roundtable Partners, LLC) was organized in 1995 by a group of independent securities firms and private investors. The RoundTable Partners include 23 internet, discount, and regular brokers, who are also customers. Trimark Securities was founded in 1986, and was acquired by Knight in 1995. NITE has been publicly traded since its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the summer of 1998. Who are NITE's customers? NITE's main customers are the on-line brokerages that founded it. However, they do business with many other firms. Major customers include: Ameritrade Inc. BHC Securities, Inc. BHF Securities Corp. Bidwell & Company Mesirow Financial Brown & Company Securities Corp. Burke, Christensen & Lewis Securities, Inc. CIBC Wood Gundy Securities Corp. Cowles, Sabol & Co., Inc. Dain Rauscher Incorporated David A. Noyes & Co. Direct Access Brokerage Services Discover Brokerage Direct, Inc. ETRADE Securities, Inc. A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc. Fiserv Correspondent Services Howe Barnes Investments, Inc. International Correspondent Trading, Inc. J.W. Charles Securities, Inc. Josephthal & Co. Inc. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated Nathan & Lewis Securities, Inc. National Discount Brokers National Financial Services Corp. PaineWebber Incorporated Primevest Financial Services, Inc. The R.J. Forbes Group, Inc. Sanders Morris Mundy, Inc. Scottsdale Securities, Inc. Southwest Securities, Inc. Stockcross, Inc. Thomas F. White & Co. U.S. Clearing Corp. Van Kasper & Company Waterhouse Securities, Inc. Wedbush Morgan Securities, Inc. How does NITE intend to grow its business? There are several sources of growth: 1) Continued expansion of the number of people buying and selling stocks, especially on-line 2) Taking market share from other Market Makers 3) Extending the hours for securities trading 4) Branching into other markets, such as options trading; see: www.iseoptions.com (International Securities Exchange; NITE is a partner) What is NITE's growth rate? Growth in earnings for the past two years has been about 78%. Projected growth for 1999 is about 75-80%. What's with all the song lyrics and bad puns? All work and no play …. Sources of information for NITE: 1) Read the past several month's posts on this board! NITE posters consistently find solid info on the company's performance and new ventures. 2) Knight/Trimark web site: www.knight-sec.com 3) SEC filings by NITE: quote.fool.com (list of filings with links) quote.fool.com (Annual report 10-K) 4) NITE trading volumes (also watch for posts on this board summarizing monthly volumes) www.nasdaqtrader.com 5) Basic financial info and earnings estimates: Financials: quote.fool.com Estimates: quote.fool.com 6) Charts for technical analysis: www.clearstation.com/cgi-bin/details?Event=peek&Symbol=nite&Refer=http://www.clearstation.com/ members.aol.com (maintained by 'norris71') 7) A Rule-Breaker analysis by 'knightwhosaysni' boards.fool.com 8) A list of brokers who are owners of NITE (provided by 'retiring') boards.fool.com 9) Other NITE forums clubs.yahoo.com clubs.yahoo.com 10) More than you'll ever want to know about being a Market Maker www.nasdaqtrader.com/trader/tradingservices/newtraderguide/newtraderguide.stm

To: Muthusamy SELVARAJU who wrote (1840)	6/26/1999 12:42:00 PM
From: Patherzen	Respond to of 10027

Part 3) News this week indicated NITE may benefit as discussions are being held with Nasdaq becoming part of the Japanese and Australian markets for trading..as well as London..who Pasternak said NITE would like to have a seat on their exchange. Hope this is just for starters as NITE has the technology in place to translate currencies globally. Regards... Patherzen

To: Muthusamy SELVARAJU who wrote (1840)	6/26/1999 12:51:00 PM
From: Patherzen	Respond to of 10027

Part 4) Risk of technology systems: While any system can err or break down or be subject to other variables (power outages, global y2K problems) etc. ) NITE appears to make significant investments into state of the art software, order-processing execution systems technology. What more can a company do?? Regards.. Patherzen (From NITE web site): Technological Advantages The application of superior technology helps differentiate Knight/Trimark Group from our competitors. Added capacity, quick response, and advanced processing capabilities allow us to reduce the cost and time associated with executing an order, as well as the risk of human error. With a state of-the-art, robust trading environment including 450 trading seats, we typically process hundreds of thousands of trades daily. Our technological edge comes from a committed and continuous investment in the development of high-availability, industry-leading, order-processing and execution systems.