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To: Jon Koplik who wrote (45946)	10/24/1999 12:57:00 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 152472

..Jon...OT....Mass Appeal.............N E W Y O R K, Oct. 21 ? Nearly half of all American households play the stock market, but despite all the hype about day trading and online transactions, most are long-term investors who rarely call upon a broker. Those are among the findings of a survey being released today by the Investment Company Institute and the Securities Industry Association, two trade organizations representing the nation?s investment companies, securities firms and investment banks. ?You hear a lot about people trading actively ? day trading over the Internet ? and that?s simply not the case,? said Elizabeth Powell, a spokeswoman for ICI. ?Most people are saving for retirement, and presumably, we can expect that trend to continue.? Habits of Individual Investors Powell said the study was the first to take such a detailed look at the habits of small-time, individual investors. Through random phone interviews with 4,842 people, the survey found that the typical stock owner is 47 years old, married, has a household income of $60,000 ? and generally subscribes to the ?buy-and-hold? investment strategy. The average investor also considers himself market-savvy, although he may have no formal background in finance or business. An estimated 49.2 million U.S. households, or 48 percent, own equities either individually or through mutual funds, according to the study. And those numbers have steadily been on the rise. In 1989, only 32.5 percent of U.S. households held stock, Powell said. By 1992 that number had increased to 36.3 percent. And it approached 41 percent by 1995. Bigger Returns in Stocks Powell said more people have been drawn to the market because they can get bigger returns for their investment in stocks than they can elsewhere. Declining interest rates, on a relative basis, have only added to the appeal. Others have turned to 401(k) retirement plans, which are increasingly being offered by employers and may be some workers sole retirement benefit as pensions become less common. Most of all, investing is easier now than it was 10 years ago, with countless magazines pumping out advice and investment companies offering toll-free, 24-hour service, Powell said. Despite the high tech access, most individual investors do it the old fashioned way ? just sit and wait. According to the study, only 11 percent of all stock owners conducted transactions over the Internet, and most hadn?t bought or sold a single stock during all of 1998, the year examined. The survey, which has a 2 percentage point margin of error, found that 48 percent of all stock owners are between the ages of 36 and 54, 32 percent are older than 55 and 19 percent are between the ages of 19 and 35.

To: Jon Koplik who wrote (45946)	10/24/1999 11:48:00 AM
From: Tavros	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

Jon, Your put/call parity exposition is useful, but not enough to prove that deep-in the money puts will be exercised. If you look at the deep-in-the-money quotes for puts (and calls), for most stocks are almost a point. And the deep-in the money puts typically will be quoted close to their intrisic value (for the reason you pointed out), but I would submit that most such puts go unexercised unless you have sharp moves in the underlying which create violations of the put/call parity and such violations exceed at least 1//2 of the quoted bid/offer spread, at which point, typically, the market maker will exercise you (dividends also come in). I have written tons of puts (as part of turbo-charged bullish strategies, involving also buying calls) over the past 7 years, and I have been exercised only in about 10/15% of them. My 5 (in-the-money) cents Tavros