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Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlib who wrote (60548)	10/16/2000 6:13:46 AM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 122087

Internet Stock Guru `Merlin' Loses Subscribers, NYT Says New York, Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The number of subscribers to a popular Internet investing site Trading-places.net, headed by a stock picker known as Merlin, has dropped to about 50 from 300, the New York Times reported, citing former employees. Merlin, whose real name is Chris Rea, used fictitious names, or ``ghosts'' in his chat room to cheerlead his recommendations, the paper said, citing former Trading-places moderators, Olivier Asser and Chris Curran. Asser claims Rea discussed terms with brokerage firms under which Rea would receive a fee for directing his subscribers to them -- a practice that would be illegal without disclosure to subscribers. Rea said the arrangements were never consummated. Rea claimed he hasn't traded any stocks since the Niles, Illinois-based Web site began operation, though the Times found court documents that show he bought 5,700 shares of Zapata Corporation, a Texas-based fish byproducts and internet venture capital company, after he founded his company. In addition, Rea persistently urged his followers to buy shares in RMI.net, a Denver-based Internet access provider, without ever disclosing that he had business dealings with an RMI subsidiary, AIS Network. Rea had plans to establish an auction site called realtimebids.com, whose infrastructure would be hosted by AIS. RMI.net bought AIS in December 1999 then issued 426,000 of its shares. In early February, Rea said RMI stock could rise from $7 to as high as $90 a share -- recommendations that helped push it above $12 for a couple of days. The stock then fell, though Rea continued to promote it in June, when it was trading at about $3. It closed Friday at $1.09. (NYT 10/15 3-1) Oct/15/2000 14:45 ET For more stories from Bloomberg News, click here. (C) Copyright 2000 Bloomberg L.P.