>>But nite is bucking the trend - why I don't know. <<
Lizzie, it's because of the SEC proposed shake up.
Ps
I'm going to buy another Kleiner child. The World Wrestling Federation. Which actually makes a ton of $profits.
>>This week, we have two featured IPOs: World Wrestling Federation
Entertainment, Inc. and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (We
couldn't pass up on the ultimate business odd couple.) World Wrestling
produces and promotes wrestling matches for TV, pay-per-view, and live
audiences. Sales for fiscal 1999 topped $250 million. Chairman Vince
McMahon, whose father founded the WWF in 1963, owns the company. Outside
the ring, home, food and garden maven Martha Stewart, leads her
eponymous company in publishing, TV, merchandising, and now online. Time
Inc. and venture capital giants Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers own
about 20% and 5% of the firm, respectively. <<
>>Washington, Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The Securities and Exchange Commission will issue a preliminary proposal to form a central national stock market by expanding the electronic links among competing U.S. markets, SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt says.
The proposal, called a ``concept release,' would ask the securities industry to comment on centralizing the display and trading of many customer orders, Levitt says in the text of a speech to be given tonight. The text was distributed in advance by the SEC.
The proposal would build on Levitt's request to the securities industry last month to consider creating links among markets for so-called ``limit orders,' or customer orders at specified prices.
``We cannot ignore the possibility that aggregating limit orders across markets, and rewarding those that post the best price first, may produce better prices for customers,' Levitt says in the speech, which is to be given to the Economic Club of New York at about 8:25 p.m. New York time.
Levitt didn't say when the concept release would be issued. One broad question he raised last month was whether a central market should only display limit orders, or provide opportunities for them to be executed as well.
The stock market has become increasingly fragmented in recent years with the growth of electronic trading networks, such as Reuters Group Plc's Instinet Corp. and Data Online Holdings Corp.'s Island ECN, that trade almost exclusively in limit orders. Many of these orders go unmatched because, after being placed on one market, they can't be matched with similar orders on a competing market.
Levitt, as part of his broader attempt to open up competition and make securities more visible, also said the SEC will issue an order in the next few days requiring the options markets to create electronic links among themselves.
``Linkages are simply essential to enabling a customer's order to receive the best execution available in any market, regardless of the market to which it was first routed,' the SEC chairman said.
The options markets -- the Chicago Board Options Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, the Pacific Exchange and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange -- have been resisting Levitt's calls for linkages since early this year. A long-standing practice of having an option listed by only one exchange -- a policy that recently changed as markets began competing on some widely traded options -- is the subject of a Justice Department antitrust investigation.
Separately, Levitt said the SEC will soon vote on a proposal to open up trading in many New York Stock Exchange-listed stocks to National Association of Securities Dealers firms, such as Knight/Trimark Group Inc. and Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities.
These firms now must go through a regional stock market if they want to trade stocks, such as General Electric Co. and International Business Machines Corp., that were listed on the Big Board before 1979. The SEC proposal would let the firms use the low-cost Intermarket Trading System to route their trades.
This proposal, which already has been issued for public comment by the SEC, wouldn't affect the Big Board's Rule 390 that prohibits NYSE member firms from trading stocks listed before 1979 in other markets. Knight/Trimark and Madoff Securities aren't NYSE members.
As for creating a central limit-order market, SEC staff plans to review public comments on the various questions raised in the release before deciding whether to recommend a specific rule proposal. If such a proposal were to be issued, the SEC would again invite public comment before it decides whether to give final approval. The whole process could take several years.
``This is a very sound idea, and Levitt seems determined to see it through,' Columbia University law professor John Coffee said. ``The only way this will get done is by forcing it, because you can expect industry foot-dragging.'
Some brokerages and specialists have expressed concern that Levitt's plan, which still is only a general concept, could eventually jeopardize their business, said Bernard Madoff, chairman of the investment-banking firm that bears his name, and head of the Securities Industry Association's trading committee.
``The various pieces of the marketplace want to be sure that their role is preserved, because they play an important role now,' Madoff said. ``While everyone wants to see linkages, there's not a consensus on this issue.'
Some large brokerages, like the electronic trading networks, internally match customer limit orders that could, under the SEC concept, end up displayed on a central market. Specialists, who match buying and selling orders on the New York Stock Exchange, might be in less demand if limit orders can be placed electronically through a broker.
Limit orders account for a substantial, growing share of all orders entered with established markets and the nine electronic trading networks. They make up about 75 percent of the 161 million annual trades on the Nasdaq Stock Market, which has sent to the SEC its own proposal to form a central market for limit orders on Nasdaq stocks.
The NYSE has a central market for limit orders, which are placed through the exchange's SuperDot platform.
Oct/18/1999 17:52 << |
