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Non-Tech : Datek Brokerage $9.95 a trade -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter H. Hodge who wrote (7500)	3/24/1998 1:29:00 PM
From: dumbmoney	Respond to of 16892

<< Here's another consideration for those who are complaining/disputing Datek's margin interest on shorts. At least you can go short on just about any issue at any time. Try that with most of the other brokers. >> Indeed, this is why I am interested in Datek. As a prospective customer I would like to understand Datek's accounting so that I know how much stock and/or cash I will need to deposit, and to avoid being "surprised".

To: Peter H. Hodge who wrote (7500)	3/25/1998 12:44:00 AM
From: Jon Tara	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16892

"At least you can go short on just about any issue at any time. Try that with most of the other brokers." Personally, I think that this makes shorting through Datek worth-while, despite the unusual interest charges. I tend not to hold shorts for a long time, anyway. And they DO seem to be able to go short just about anything, and pronto, too. Just HOW they manage to do that, I am thinking, may be a can of worms we don't want to open. (But I'll open it anyway...) I suspect that Datek will say that this is "proprietary" (as they once said about their order routing). But here's one off-the-wall speculation: Datek is listed as a market-maker in just about every NASDAQ stock. And trading volume does show-up attributed to Datek, according to statistics found on the NASD web site. The question has come up before as to why this is, when ISLD supposedly represents their trades to the market, and has never been clearly answered by Datek. Now, there's one thing that a market-maker can do that nobody else can do: short a stock without actually borrowing the stock. IF this is what they are doing, it's sure a slick trick, and gives Datek customers considerable advantage in many shorting situations. IF this is the case, I just hope it's not a deal with the devil, and we don't get caught in the middle of something, though...