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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RR who wrote (50960)	5/4/2002 7:32:28 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

market turns aegeancapital.com looks like everyone's looking for a rally into Fed then sell-off. BKX and IXF (Nasdaq Financial-100) are acting like it. Swenlin - P/Es, VIX, VXN aegeancapital.com

To: RR who wrote (50960)	5/4/2002 8:19:44 PM
From: synchro_fan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 65232

It snowed here yesterday and Thursday evening. It might even do it again tonight. Still running the fireplace. Oh well, we do need the moisture. lol Syncie

To: RR who wrote (50960)	5/5/2002 6:54:34 PM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 65232

<i."How many think we test September lows this month?" My SWAG......... This month or maybe in June..... maybe even go lower than Sept.... "How many think we will be lower next Friday than yesterday?" Higher..... but not by much. BWDIK? Ö¿Ö

To: RR who wrote (50960)	5/7/2002 9:21:12 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

Wall St. Firms Said to Break E-Mail Rule By GRETCHEN MORGENSON The New York Times Tue May 7, 3:03 PM ET Some Wall Street firms have advised securities regulators investigating possible conflicts of interest among stock analysts that they have not retained e-mail messages as required by law, according to people close to the investigations. Federal securities laws require brokerage firms to retain electronic mail relating to the brokerage firm's overall business for three years. The e-mail messages are being sought by investigators for the National Association of Securities Dealers Regulation, the nation's largest regulator of Wall Street firms, the people said. A spokeswoman for the association declined to comment, but the people close to the investigations said that Salomon Smith Barney was one firm that had failed to produce the correspondence. In all, a handful of firms have been notified by the regulator that an investigation has been completed and that it has uncovered evidence that warrants disciplinary action. Such communications, known as Wells notices, have been sent to firms but not to individuals. After receiving such notices, brokerage firms typically present their arguments for why an enforcement action is not warranted. Several different groups, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites), are looking into how research departments operate on Wall Street and are gathering information on such matters as compensation and the involvement of stock analysts in investment banking deals. Last month, Salomon, a unit of Citigroup, notified its employees that the New York attorney general had requested documents dating back to 1998 that related to 54 telecommunications companies that Salomon had conducted investment banking services for or that its star telecommunications analyst, Jack B. Grubman, had covered in recent years. The firm's lawyers issued the directive and advised employees to "preserve all documents that may be relevant to the subjects covered by the subpoena until you are advised otherwise in writing by the office of the general counsel." Mr. Grubman was known for working closely with Salomon's investment bankers to attract underwriting business during the mania for telecom stocks in the late 1990's. Mary Ellen Hillery, a Salomon spokeswoman, declined to comment on the existence of a Wells notice, but said: "Different firms have adopted different approaches to the books and records rules as they apply to e-mails. We believe that we have taken a reasonable approach which has resulted in the retention of many millions of e-mails." The production of e-mail messages has been central to the case brought last month against Merrill Lynch by Eliot L. Spitzer, the New York attorney general. Mr. Spitzer won an injunction against the firm in April and in an affidavit filed with the court, Mr. Spitzer released hundreds of documents, many of them e-mail messages, showing how closely Merrill's analysts and investment bankers worked together to attract lucrative deals for the firm. The e-mail messages also showed analysts, including Henry Blodget, who followed Internet stocks for Merrill, privately deriding companies whose shares they were recommending to the public. Mr. Spitzer's investigation of analysts' conflicts is continuing; he has sent subpoenas to most major firms on Wall Street. Beyond Salomon, it is unclear whether the brokerage firms' inability to produce the e-mail messages requested by investigators is a result of a mistake or of purposeful document destruction. A former regulatory official said that Wall Street firms had complained for years about the law requiring e-mail retention, arguing that such messages should not be considered the type of communication that must be retained. The firms have also said that complying with the law is impractical and an onerous financial burden. Last November, the S.E.C. reiterated its view that e-mail messages are covered by the law and must be retained. The law states that firms must preserve the documents "in an accessible place" for two years after the messages are written. The notices from the regulatory division of the N.A.S.D. were sent to the firms recently, according to the people close to the investigation. Nearly a year ago, that regulator began looking into how closely research analysts at brokerage firms interact with their investment banking colleagues in drumming up interest in stocks underwritten by the firm and how analysts are compensated for their work. Twelve large and midsize firms are under investigation by the association. The people close to the investigation said that policies on e-mail retainment among the largest brokerage firms seem to vary widely. If the firms are found by regulators to have mistakenly deleted messages that they were supposed to keep, they could face fines extending into the high six-figures. If the firms destroyed the messages purposefully, penalties are more significant, including suspension or expulsion from the securities industry. Prosecutors say that under New York state law, a firm that deleted e-mail messages that it was required to maintain could be found guilty of falsifying business records. If the destruction of the e-mail messages was found to be intentional, the firm could face a felony charge. To assuage Mr. Spitzer's concerns, Merrill Lynch officials plan to present a proposal today about how to insulate Merrill's analysts further from the firm's investment banking department, people close to those negotiations said. Merrill is trying to satisfy Mr. Spitzer's demand for a separation of research and banking without making changes that could prove to be a significant handicap in the competition for corporate finance business, these people said. Finding a way to achieve that balance has been one of the biggest obstacles to reaching a settlement, they said.