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Non-Tech : AMERITRADE HLD A (NASDAQ:AMTD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: smartInvestor who wrote (298)	7/24/1998 9:27:00 PM
From: Gil Gilbertson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1848

If a stock such as AMTD has only 14.5 mill shares and of those all but 3 million are controlled by the insiders, it is apparent that when a stock is doing well and people buy to hold that the float is soon reduced to a minimum. Mutual funds find it therefore very difficult to buy a large block without creating more pressure and thus the more they buy, the more they pay. When the stock splits, there are twice as many shares, many folks lighten up on a split and at the same time there are usually more shares offered in the capitalization of the company. A stock with 200mill shares is much more liquid than a stock with only 15 mill shares and preponderance of inside ownership. If you observe over the coming months, you will probably see a secondary and if the earnings keep climbing, another split next year. This will all improve the float and when institutional ownership starts to get interested that when the stocks can really move if the fundamentals keep improving. Gil