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Technology Stocks : America On-Line (AOL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Time Traveler who wrote (29666)	8/20/1999 1:41:00 PM
From: Roy F	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 41369

Internets firm as markets focus on rate meeting August 20, 1999 01:16 PM By Ian Simpson NEW YORK, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Internet shares firmed Friday as Wall Street focused on a Federal Reserve interest-rate meeting next week. Upbeat analyst comments helped underpin the sector, especially retailers. Expiration of stock option and futures added to overall volatility. The American Stock Exchange's 48-share Internet index was up 3.62 points, or 1.29 percent, at 284.12 points. The volatile index fell Thursday for the first time since Aug. 9, weighed by concerns about the June trade deficit and a weaker dollar. Markets were stronger overall as Wall Street looked ahead to a Federal Reserve meeting Tuesday on interest rates. The central bank is expected to push the benchmark short-term rate 0.25 percentage point higher to 5.25 percent. Alex Cheung, portfolio manager at the Monument Internet Fund in Bethesda, Md., said investors were more relaxed about the prospect of higher rates and looking past the U.S. trade shortfall. "Things like that don't last long," he said. Cheung added that data from Media Metrix, an Internet research firm, showing growth in Web retail purchases outpaced an overall rise in use highlighted a shift in Internet use. "What we have been looking for is for Internet users to become Internet buyers," he said. Media Metrix reported that unique visits to shopping sites rose 2 percent to 42.6 million in July. Overall visitor growth was up 0.4 percent to 62.9 million visitors. "We view the continued momentum of online shopping as extremely positive and another indication of a potentially huge online holiday shopping season to come," said Lauren Cooks Levitan, an analyst with BancBoston Robertson Stephens. Keith Benjamin, also a BancBoston Robertson Stephens analyst, said investors wanted to buy Internet shares but had been put off by volatility. He said queries from investors suggested "that we we will see a rush to buy within the next few weeks, just as we saw around last year this time." Internet retailer Amazon.com Inc. AMZN rose 2 to 108-1/8. Auctioneer eBay Inc. EBAY strengthened 3-13/16 to 117-9/16. Airline ticket company Priceline.com Inc. PCLN was up 1/4 at 66-3/4. Influential Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget said the Media Metrix data showed that America Online Inc. AOL kept the top spot in terms of visits. Even so, AOL was "still weak" in terms of pages viewed and time spent at sites, he wrote. AOL was well below portal Yahoo! Inc. YHOO and Microsoft Corp. MSFT in those categories. AOL was off 1-1/16 at 94-13/16 and was the most active share on the New York Stock Exchange. Yahoo! rose 1-5/8 to 140-3/4. ((-- New York technology desk, (212) 859-1879)) REUTERS

To: Time Traveler who wrote (29666)	8/20/1999 2:12:00 PM
From: Tom Tallant	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 41369

TT, This specialist is a jerk...look at the price!! He won't let it loose.Sorry...just get frustrated when you know the thing would go higher if it weren't manipulated. Tom

To: Time Traveler who wrote (29666)	8/20/1999 2:37:00 PM
From: Steve Robinett	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 41369

TT, I'm unclear about what you mean when you say your chart shows the amount of money that has to be rewarded to the option holders. The Maxpain theory holds that the stock will wind up at the point that causes the greatest number of options to expire worthless--it's a conspiracy theory and not a particularly persuasive one to anyone with any understanding of how markets work. The dollar values is immaterial. Only the open interest matters. The put and call open interest is highest for AOL at 100. A close today at 100 would make the most contracts expire worthless--max pain to the most people. Best, --Steve