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Strategies & Market Trends : TradersChoice 2000 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr. Big who wrote (484)	10/19/1999 4:41:00 PM
From: Jeff Jordan	Respond to of 604

LU, Yeah pretty cheap....should move back up soon? Maybe MSFT will help the market tomorrow? Some stocks higher aftermarket on it's coat tails....We definitely need to break 1300 tomorrow.....

To: Mr. Big who wrote (484)	10/19/1999 10:13:00 PM
From: Jeff Jordan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 604

decisionpoint.com angelfire.com Earnings charts Wed. 10/20 quote.yahoo.com angelfire.com

To: Mr. Big who wrote (484)	10/20/1999 7:34:00 PM
From: Jeff Jordan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 604

I sld my LU using MarketXT.....I can't trade NYSE stocks after-market using Cybercorp. I just figure LU will open lower tomorrow w/ the other techs....maybe it will surprise me yet again and buck the trend? But it has appeared very weak so I'll take my chances. --------------------- dailynews.yahoo.com -------------------- E+Trade, GM offer $1 mln for end-of-year Dow guess 7.16 p.m. ET (2316 GMT) October 19, 1999 MENLO PARK, Calif. — Online broker E+Trade and General Motors Corp's Oldsmobile division are offering $1 million to the person who can correctly guess where the Dow Jones industrial average settles on the last trading day of the year. ------------------ Electronic trading networks seek strength through mergers 3.22 p.m. ET (1922 GMT) October 15, 1999 NEW YORK — Consolidation among electronic stock trading networks appears to be heating up, as the upstart systems attempt to marshal resources and customers in order to stay alive in the highly competitive market. The explosion in online stock trading has resulted in a proliferation of electronic communications systems, or ECNs, which match buy and sell orders for customers through computerized networks that are touted as being faster and cheaper than the large, traditional exchanges. But securities industry analysts have long predicted that a shake out among ECNs is just around the corner. Now it looks like the industry may have reached that turning point. Reports have recently surfaced that two of the smaller players in the nascent world of electronic exchanges -- Strike Technologies LLC and Brass Utility LLC -- are discussing a possible merger. A spokesman for Strike Technologies confirmed that Strike was talking to other ECNs about joining forces. But the spokesman downplayed specific talk of a merger with Brass Utility. Brass Utility officials didn't immediately return calls seeking comment Friday. There are currently nine electronic networks vying for both institutional business and the growing number of individual investors who trade online through ECNs. Scaling back the number is "necessary, inevitable and good,'' said Junius Peake, a finance professor at the University of Northern Colorado. "This is essentially a cleanup brought about by the forces of competition and customers' demands for a marketplace where a buyer has access to every potential seller, '' said Peake, who has long supported a more centralized marketplace for stock trading. The proliferation of independent ECNs has raised concerns that stock markets have become too fragmented, leaving investors unable to find the best stock prices available because a given stock is being traded in several unconnected markets. Consolidation among ECNs could alleviate those fears by reducing the number of markets in which stocks are traded. Regulation of the new markets might also be easier if there are fewer to police. Nevertheless, competition will be the driving force behind the shakeout, according to market analysts. Since investors want markets where they can find other buyers and sellers, it makes sense for ECNs to combine and bring together as many customers as possible. "Fragmentation leads to a profit problem. You have a number of ECNs competing for the same business, but no one really knows how much business there is. They need to consolidate to obtain economies of scale,'' said David Bayless, a securities lawyer and former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission's San Francisco office. Bernard Madoff, head of Madoff Securities in New York, agreed. "There just isn't enough order flow to sustain all of these ECNs,'' he said. ECN survival will depend on which of the fledgling networks can generate the most liquidity -- or create the most active markets, Madoff added. "The survivors will be the ones that can create that critical mass of trading volume and combine it with the best technology,'' he said. ECN operators say investors -- with or without consolidation brought about mergers -- will gravitate toward whatever markets are most active because that's where the best prices will be found. "Order flow will gravitate together because it would be inefficient for it not to. Everyone is in search of liquidity,'' said Cameron Smith, Island ECN's legal counsel. Together, Island and Instinet, the oldest and largest ECN, handle about 90 percent of the trades completed on ECNs. About 30 percent of all trades of stocks listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market now take place on ECNs. Michael Satow, president of MarketXT, a small ECN that operates an after-hours trading session, said investors can only benefit if electronic networks are strengthened through consolidation. "It's a good thing for the markets to have each of the players as strong as possible,'' he said