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To: Herschel Rubin who wrote (3607)	8/23/1999 12:13:00 PM
From: gbh	Respond to of 10027

Herschel, this is an interestign article, but it doesn't lay out all of the facts re: MM's (in general) vs. ECNs. One important point it doesn't mention, is that when a limit order is placed on ISLD, it typically happens virtually instantaneously, say 1 second from entry. That same limit order say, placed through Fidelity, on a stock where they don't make an active market, must be electronically routed to a MM for that stock, say NITE. Here's where things can get ugly. That MM, a trader with profit/loss objectives just like you or me, might choose to wait a few seconds to display that order on Level 2, depending on market direction. Perhaps he waits 3 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, etc... Now, I should qualify that some of my best executions occur with Fidelity, but this issue of a MM front running my order will always be there, IMO. BTW, I'm long NITE, and would expect them to defend their practices, but I prefer the option of executing my trades through an ECN, when possible. For very liquid stocks, its hard for me to see the true benefit of the MM. gary