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

To: Esteban who wrote (9543)	8/21/1998 2:45:00 PM
From: Ed Forrest	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16892

updated 10:45am 21.Aug.98.PDT Wired News Wired Collections Webmonkey The Web w/ HotBot SECTIONS Top Stories Business Culture Technology Politics General News FREE DELIVERY NEWS OVERVIEW Today The Past 7 Days STOCKS Quotes (enter ticker): Stocks Graphing Quotes Indexes Most Active Portfolios Wired Index WIRED MAGAZINE Issue 6.08 Subscribe to Wired. Special offer! HOTWIRED Front Door Webmonkey Web 101 RGB Gallery Suck.com HOTBOT Search Shopping Wired News Staff Send us feedback Wired News delivered by Outlook Express, In-Box Direct or PointCast The Next Nasdaq? by Craig Bicknell 4:00am 21.Aug.98.PDT Wall Street wunderkind Jeffrey Citron wants to create a whole new stock exchange, a 24-hour trading system that lets anyone online buy and sell stock without going through a Nasdaq market maker or a New York Stock Exchange floor specialist. He might even get the backing of online trading giants like ETrade. "The regulatory climate for doing something like this is exceptional," he says. Citron, 27, is the chairman of Datek Online, an Iselin, New Jersey, Internet brokerage house. Datek has developed an electronic trading system, called Island, that automatically matches investors' buy and sell orders for stocks that trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange, bypassing the middlemen who normally process trades. Called an ECN, for "electronic communications network," the system is already popular. It handles about 4 percent of all Nasdaq trades. Citron wants more. He's courting online brokers like ETrade (EGRP) and Charles Schwab (SCH), hoping to convince them to pool their investment order flow in the Island system. As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, ETrade may buy an ECN, build one of its own from scratch, or become a partner with an existing one. ETrade officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment about Datek's plans. Citron wouldn't say with whom he's talking, but says his firm has been "having continual conversations." The aim is to accumulate enough buy and sell orders on the system so that every order can be matched and filled without having to turn to market makers. Currently the system matches about 40 percent of the orders on the network. The online brokers are keeping mum, but they're all considering jumping into ECNs like Island, analysts say. "This is one of the hottest topics in the online brokerage industry," says Credit Suisse First Boston analyst Bill Burnham. Datek says the trading volume on Island is racing towards critical mass. "We're about halfway down the hill, and we're already a pretty big snowball, " says Citron. "We're gaining momentum fast." Once Island hits a sustainable volume, Citron aims to apply to the Securities and Exchange Commission to make Island a registered exchange. The established exchanges are lobbying to ensure that any new regulation protects their interests. "The key here is what kind of restraints [the SEC] puts on firms that register an exchange," says Burnham. It's likely that the SEC would allow Island to operate as an affiliate of the NYSE and Nasdaq, paying them to handle the regulatory duties of an exchange for the privilege of trading their stocks. Once it's established as an exchange, Island and its online brokerage partners can charge investors for market quotes and information, currently business that generates hundreds of millions of dollars for the Nasdaq and NYSE, according to Burnham. The likely losers? The Nasdaq market makers and New York Stock Exchange floor specialists who make their living pocketing the difference between the buy and sell price of the stocks they trade. Automatic trading systems narrow that spread. "The ECNs are part of the continuing vice that's being cranked up and reducing the spread," says Burnham. Related Wired Links: Etrade Brokers Its Own Deal 10.Jul.98 US Cyberbrokers Head Overseas 4.Jun.98 Online Traders Fight for Customer Custody 19.Nov.97 Check on other Web coverage of this story with NewsBot Rants & Raves: Send your rants and raves to Wired News. Tips: Have a story or tip for Wired News? Send it. Wired Digital offers HotWired, Wired News, HotBot, Wired Magazine online, Suck, and NewsBot. Copyright c 1994-98 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved. Printing? Use this version. BUSINESS Today's Headlines Cisco Buys Cable Modem Outfit The Next Nasdaq? SBC Challenges FCC's Data Rules Deutsche Telekom Seeks Cash Novell Revenues Recovering Barnesandnoble.com to Go Public Dell Goes Direct to China Tower Online Expands to Europe Excite Hires New President Chip Shares Crumble