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To: c.horn who wrote (13132)	8/10/2000 10:57:40 PM
From: EL KABONG!!!	Respond to of 32884

Gee... Reading the threads, I thought all day traders made gobs and gobs of money... Most day traders lose money, report says Associated Press August 11, 2000 WASHINGTON - Few people ever make money in day trading and most of those who lost, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars, didn't know how risky the practice is, Senate investigators concluded. A report by the Senate Governmental Affairs subcommittee on investigations was based on the panel's eight-month inquiry into the day-trading industry. It was released Tuesday by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the subcommittee's chairman, and Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, its senior Democrat. "Day trading clearly is a gamble for most traders, but certainly not for the (day-trading) firms," Collins said in a statement. "They make money whether their customers do or not." The subcommittee held hearings on day trading in September and February, which showed that day-trading firms often accept people as customers who shouldn't be trading and improperly raid customers' accounts to make loans to other investors to keep them trading. One of the witnesses was Alyce Wenzel, who testified that before her son Scott Webb was shot and killed by fellow day trader Mark Barton in Atlanta in July 1999, she was unaware he had borrowed $30,000 from another investor. Barton shot and killed nine people at two day-trading firms before killing himself. Glued to their computers, day traders ride the stock market's ups and downs, trying to squeeze out profits by rapidly buying and selling shares electronically. Host firms provide trading facilities, computers and specialized software for their customers, who pay the firms a commission on each trade. The day-trading industry has defended its practices, maintaining that most day traders can make money after six months or so. The new report notes that the subcommittee was not proposing a ban on day trading but was seeking to make day-trading firms more accountable and the public more aware of the risks. Arthur Levitt, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, also has criticized practices of the day-trading industry and has said some firms have used deceptive advertising to lure investors. The SEC recently approved a rule requiring day-trading firms to warn investors in writing of the risks before they open an account. Last month, a self-policing brokers group filed a complaint against All-Tech Direct Inc., one of the biggest day-trading firms, and three of its top executives. In February, the SEC sued All-Tech and four executives of the firm in federal court alleging that they made trading loans to customers that exceeded legal limits. All-Tech, based in Montvale, N.J., is contesting the SEC lawsuit and disputing the complaint by the National Association of Securities Dealers.