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Technology Stocks : Westell WSTL -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: I. N. Vester who wrote (18311)	3/17/2000 9:15:00 AM
From: eli74	Respond to of 21342

I.N., I haven't heard anything specific concerning margin requirements. I have seen commentary from several sources (major brokerage houses, etc) that have indicated they're surprised by the fact the Fed hasn't changed margin requirements. These commentators have suggested that such a move would be a rifle shot approach targeted at excessive speculation in tech stocks rather than the sledgehammer approach of raising borrowing rates for the whole economy. I have also seen statistics that suggest that the recently announced increase in margin debt is virtually identical to the net stock fund inflows over the same time period. While I doubt that the relationship is quite that neat, it does suggest that borrowed money as a major source of recent stock inflows. And last time I checked, one way to reduce the demand for something is to raise its price. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see the Fed do something with margin requirements at the FOMC meeting next week. Eli74