To: Michael Watkins who wrote (5761 ) 2/17/2001 7:20:52 PM From: Michael Watkins Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 8925 Post NT Meltdown Press Clippings and Commentary The unsurprising NT meltdown is particularly troubling to many Canadians, where NT commands a huge impact on the popular indicies in this country. The TSE300 was off over 600 points at one point during Friday's sell off, to close near the lows down 574 points, some 6.4 percent from Thursday's close. During the day trading was halted in Canada because, again, the TSE's computer systems were unable to keep up with high volumes of trading. This caps off dozens of systems failures that have tarnished the TSE over the last couple of years. It is no wonder why many traders in Canada ignore trading on the TSE in favour of better managed markets on the NYSE and egads even the Nasdaq in many respects. Some of the commentary is funny if not insulting! In the Globe & Mail, James Gautier of Fundmonitor.com "I think generally people are going to be scared off because of what they are seeing...". The article continues "that most investors are not sophisticated enough to understand that the main reason for the huge slump is that Nortel is very heavily weighted in the index. [This despite NT being mentioned virtually every day in the Canadian press for the past year as being the main driving factor in every TSE market move, up and down. Sadly, the writer has a point, however insulting it may be.] AIC Fund advertisement headline Avoid The Coming Recession and buried within the ad: "Buy. Hold. And Prosper." [Hey, a bad thing (recession) may be good for marketing! Pile it on!] Etrade Canada advertisement: Picture of glass of water with etrade asterisk-like logo fizzing like an antacid Now, more than ever, its time for E*TRADE Canada." [Yes, why not use panic to help convince mutual fund buy and holders that they can become some sort of trading whiz just by opening an E*TRADE account!] Its all so funny and and sad at the same time.