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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ed who wrote (12138)	12/27/1997 7:30:00 AM
From: Bill Fischofer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 97611

Re: MMs A few basics. As an NYSE issue there are no Market Makers for CPQ. The NYSE is an agency auction market. See nyse.com for an overview of how the NYSE works. Stock manipulation is illegal but sometimes does happens, typically in OTC:BB and smaller NASDAQ issues. See recent fines levied against MER and other brokerages for examples. The NASD and SEC are responsible for ensuring and enforcing the integrity of the financial markets. NASD Regulation at nasdr.com is a good place to start for information about the regulatory process. The SEC website at sec.gov is also a valuable resource for this and other information. CPQ's recent weakness has nothing to do with 'manipulation'. What you are seeing is nervous portfolio managers locking in 1997 gains in the face of worries over Asia. Come January 1st these same porfolio managers will be starting a new year flush with cash looking for bargains. They'll find them in many of the same stocks they sold in December. Happens every year, just more pronounced this time around.

To: ed who wrote (12138)	12/27/1997 6:01:00 PM
From: Dulane U. Ponder	Respond to of 97611

Ed, I don't think there's any law against dumping huge lots of shares unless, for instance, Morgan Stanley and Merrill/Lynch got together and decided to unload 100,000 shares of say cpq at 52 and then together decided to buy back those 100,000 shares as soon as their initial sale brought the price down to 50, for example. Maybe my explanation isn't quite right, but basically I think there has to be collusion for any manipulation of the market to be illegal -- price fiixng or something like that.