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Strategies & Market Trends : Systems, Strategies and Resources for Trading Futures -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Trader who wrote (5321)	10/5/1998 10:17:00 AM
From: SE	Respond to of 44573

Very well. I am not sure I like anything yet either. I don't know if this is going to rally or pull-back from here and my indicators are just sloppy right now. I am going to wait till I am sure what it is going to do and then enter.

To: Tom Trader who wrote (5321)	10/5/1998 10:30:00 AM
From: SE	Respond to of 44573

Tom, Some observations I have made after my first week of trading on LeoWeb with LFG. It is an electronic, internet based order entry system connected to the TOPS and CUBS system at the CME. The CUBS system apparently reports the fills back to the customer, and goes down frequently. This causes delays in the reporting back of fills. Bad news. The TOPS system is the order entry system and I get a printout that shows the time of my order etc when I enter it. There are two times stamps, the LEOWEB time stamp and the TOPS time stamp. IT appears the TOPS time stamp is accurate, but the LEOWEB time stamp can be as much as 15 minutes off. Why? No idea..... The fills appear to be very quick...under 1 minute and in most cases within 20 seconds of the TOPS time stamp. I checked the time and sales for every entry last week. Many times I was filled .50 against me and in one case it appeared to be 1.5 against me. This was determined by eyeballing the time of entry and the other trades around my trade. That I am not real happy about, but it has only been a week and I am going to be a bit more diligent in my time checking this week. It never was in my favor, but sometimes was at the price that it traded around my fill. That being said, overall I am happy, but if the fills keep appearing .50 away from what I think they ought to be, I will be gone. This is my perception of my fills based on what I have in front of me and in no way is intended to reflect that something is going on that might not be on the up and up. I hesitated to mention it at all, because of the that possible perception and I hope that this statement that it is only my preliminary checking that I have this conclusion is acceptable. Now, however, on the e-mini. Enter the order, filled within 3 seconds and filled at the price on my screen. The commission is about $40 so it is hard to justify trading the mini for quick scalps. One spoo is $40, 5 minis to make up one SPOO is $200. However, if I am getting hummed for .50 in and out each trade, $200 and knowing what my fill is is less than $250 and having to wonder. Interesting predicament, isn't it? -Scott

To: Tom Trader who wrote (5321)	10/5/1998 10:33:00 AM
From: Jerry Olson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 44573

TOM this just in..... Chip Companies' Downtrodden Earnings May Have Bottomed By Therese Poletti SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - U.S. semiconductor companies, still in the midst of one of the longest-running industry slumps, are expected to report a lackluster third quarter but analysts said that the worst may be over. Buoyed by a rebound in personal computer sales - in part due to the depletion of bloated inventories from earlier in the year - chip makers that provide components to PC makers are expected to report third quarter earnings that are flat to up slightly, compared with the most recent dismal second quarter. ''I think the industry has seen a bottom here,'' said Mark Edelstone, a Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst. ''Everything that touches the PC is doing pretty well. Everything else is pretty mixed.'' Last quarter was fraught with chip maker after chip maker pre-announcing earnings disappointments, as the economic malaise in Asia, a glut of PCs and memory chips and too much manufacturing capacity all fueled an industry downturn. While analysts still forecast a sharp decline in worldwide chip sales this year - the third year of the industry downturn - Wall Street has been heartened this quarter by the fewer number of negative earnings warnings. ''We believe that most of the industry has hit bottom and expect flat sales or sequential improvements in the third quarter,'' said John Lazlo, a PaineWebber Inc. analyst. ''Unlike the prior three quarters, we do not expect much unfavorable news.'' Very few companies have had negative pre-announcements. Indeed, last month, the world's largest chip maker, Intel Corp. (INTC - news), which develops microprocessors - the brain chips of almost 90 percent of the world's PCs - had a positive surprise for Wall Street last month. Intel said that it sees a better-than-expected third quarter, due to strong demand in North America and Europe. Its third quarter revenues will be eight to 10 percent above second quarter's revenues of $5.9 billion, the Santa Clara, Calif.- based company said. Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD - news) of Sunnyvale, Calif., which makes Intel-compatible processors and other semiconductor products, is also expected to gain from the recent rebound in PCs. While AMD is still expected to report a loss, it may be narrower than the biggest bears on Wall Street are expecting. ''They have a good shot at getting close to break even,'' said Dan Niles, a BancBoston Robertson Stephens analyst. ''They are seeing a pretty good acceleration of their processor business. Flash (memory) which hurt them last quarter is flat.'' Unit shipments should be up strongly versus second quarter. Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN - news) is also expected to see a sequential boost in profits, since it has sold off its money-losing memory chip business to Micron Technology Inc. (MU - news) This quarter will be TI's first without the DRAM (dynamic random access memory) business. ''DSPs (digital signal processors)...will be more of a driver and a bigger part of the revenue mix now that DRAMs are gone,'' said Bill Milton, a Brown Brothers Harriman analyst. ''There will still be some residual losses from DRAMs in the quarter.'' Milton said TI will have expenses from some of its employees who were not absorbed in the Micron deal. But while the PC industry is providing some bright spots to the semiconductor industry, other chip makers develop chips in the areas of analog, custom logic, memory, or fortelecommunications are still under pressure. Analog Devices Inc. (ADI - news), LSI Logic Corp. (LSI - news) and VLSI Technology Inc. (VLSI - news) have all pre-announced earnings disappointments. ADI of Norwood, Mass. cited inventory buildup and weak market conditions in Japan and Southeast Asia while Milpitas, Calif.- based LSI Logic said sluggish sales in the U.S. hurt its earnings. San Jose, Calif.-based VLSI cited the overall industry slump for an anticipated third quarter disappointment, but also said that it expects an industry recovery sometime in 1999. Fri Oct 02 \| Thu Oct 01 \| Wed Sep 30 \| Tue Sep 29 \| Mon Sep 28 Index \| Top Stories \| Business \| Tech \| Politics \| World \| Health \| Entertainment \| Sports \| Local Questions or Comments Copyright © 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any a