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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JDN who wrote (29793)	3/31/2000 1:28:00 PM
From: C. Zuck	Respond to of 64865

OT Waterhouse Twice I have used the automated phone service for transactions ($35) when the online service ($12) was not available. Both times I called the local office and they readily agreed to reduce the fee to the online rate ($12)

To: JDN who wrote (29793)	3/31/2000 1:32:00 PM
From: James Lough	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

I can verify re: Waterhouse trades. If you can't get on line you can phone the local office and they will make the trade for you at the $12 price. Of course you have to tell them you can't get on. Jim

To: JDN who wrote (29793)	3/31/2000 4:46:00 PM
From: Alok Sinha	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Dear JDN That is true; they are more than willing to do the trade at the same rate. The problem usually is that when the on-line breaks, it takes a good 20-25 minutes to get a hold of a live broker on phone. They do have touch tone trading, but that also has problems from time to time. IN SF they have an office across the Street from where I am, and I sometimes walk over there to get an order in if I am having too much trouble. Action in SUN was a tad disappointing today. Regards Alok >Dear Alok: OT I have been told that when there is a problem with the service at Waterhouse you can call the local office and make your trade at the same price as online trading. Do you believe that to be true? JDN

To: JDN who wrote (29793)	3/31/2000 9:35:00 PM
From: nihil	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

That is true, but the local office is swamped when anything is up. Another annoyance is W runs their accounts in batch, so you never know your real time balances. If you trade a bit, it gets to be a mess. Another problem is their reps are often untrained. I remember having to walk a rep through exercising a bunch of calls. I had to take them to NASDAQ over the Y2K weekend over some blunders they made and refused to fix. It is also annoying when they refer your trade to an officer to be vetted. Bush league, Canadian software, I guess. You simply cannot rely on their computers to do the job in anything but the most relaxed trading atmosphere. eTrade is much better. I usually use limit GTC orders for options to buy below the bid or sell above the ask and find they are often executed same day at better prices than were ever posted. Money in the bank.