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To: 10K a day who wrote (104215)	5/27/2000 1:54:00 AM
From: Sarmad Y. Hermiz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Well, I do know a few traders who are not otherwise employed. And they are not doing well. Especially lately. So I am inclined to believe that a large proportion of traders give up the pursuit.

To: 10K a day who wrote (104215)	5/27/2000 7:39:00 AM
From: KeepItSimple	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

I've moved all of my schwab accounts to other brokerages after experiencing this first hand. I had some huge april put positions that had generated a "paper" loss of 7 figures. This was around the middle of march. I had the schwab platinum team members calling me threatening to lower my account status to level 1 to protect me from my own ignorance. I had to scream at them, and in no uncertain terms threaten to sue their sorry asses if they liquidated any of my positions or changed my account status. That 7 figure loss turned into a low 8 digit gain within a month. someone sold me those puts. and although i'll never be able to prove it, i'll just take a guess and say it was schwab or one of their affiliate trading desk arms. >They don't want daytraders busting them in the CHOPS on breakouts...they don't want that stuff...they are exposed by having to take the other side of the trade ....(sometimes)

To: 10K a day who wrote (104215)	5/27/2000 9:07:00 AM
From: Gary Korn	Respond to of 164684

I've read that 9 out of every 10 daytraders are forced out by losing all or most of their stake>>> I believe that's propaganda...I think the houses want you to believe that....They don't want competition...They don't like daytraders...Daytraders are like pesky flys to them....they want the leverage...they want the fat....they don't want the paperwork....I think the Merrills and the HERZOGS of the world...tolerate the New Electronic Trading stuff...Only to the extent that they can pound the Paper on to the heads of the market participants.... Take a 20K account in to Merrill and swing trade it...and see how many times they ask you to move your account.....(IMO)These guys FLAT OUT....Hate active traders...They hate Etrade...They hate Datek...they hate all of them....They (KNIGHT) mark the successful traders...and they will do anything within their power to take them out...if they (traders) expose themselves at the wrong time.... ...Daytraders take up time,,,they take up resources,,,they call on the phone,,,they complain,,,they dispute,,,they argue,,,,they cause paperwork....Merrill and Morgan don't want that....Merrill wants to go out to lunch...and Talk big money in to putting it in their QQQ fund for 13 months....They don't want some 50K flipper...turning over the account 3 times a day....on Margin...They don't want daytraders busting them in the CHOPS on breakouts...they don't want that stuff...they are exposed by having to take the other side of the trade ....(sometimes) impristine, I couldn't agree with you more! I day trade (both at Fidelity and Merrill), and the powers that be either tell me its bad or do what they can do undermine me. Fidelity is worst. They reap $15/trade, every trade, yet they threw me off of direct phone access and made me play with their damn web site. I put in a "buy" order at the market and watch it get "held" until the buying pressure abates, then it fills, then the stock swoons. I put in a "sell" and watch the same thing happen in reverse. Even with that crap I can generally eke out a small profit. Merrill fills fine, but they certainly don't want me daytrading. I'm in a constant red-flagged margin violation status of some sort (even though I don't use margin) because their system doesn't cannot process my buy/sell/buy/sell activity (which uses no margin), but rather adds up all the buys before removing the sells (and the total buys could be a million or more) and then says: Margin violation. Trading Halt. To top it off, the Merrill broker says I should buy/hold regardless of whether I'd make money at it, but that I should stop trading even though I do make money at it. I signed up for the American Express account, but the day before I was to fund it, I got a "screw you" letter in the mail. More specifically, it said "The American Express Brokerage Account is not intended for excessive trading activity. If I engage in excessive trading activity (as determined by American Express Brokerage in its sole discretion), i may be subject to additional charges, determined on a case by case basis, and/or termination of my account." Yeah, right, I'm going to agree in advance to "additional charges" that AmEx in its sole discretion is going to impose? Gimme a break. They hate us. Gary Korn