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To: Savant who wrote (2652)	10/11/1998 3:10:00 PM
From: Arcane Lore	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4201

I believe that one article was incorrect, there is or was a company selling shares directly on the internet, I believe it was a beer company, ... I believe you're thinking of Wit Capital and their internet-only IPO of Wit Beer. The president of the company has written a book "WallStreet.com". A "Readers Digest" version of the book can be found at: hotwired.com Note that Wit Capital took an entirely different and more productive approach to dealing with the SEC than the firm that's in trouble with the Alberta authorities. The company has some very interesting ideas for avoiding/reducing the bid/ask spread via web trading between its customers. For these to be really useful the company would need to have a large customer base. Their plans for digital trading can be found at: witcapital.com It appears relatively few of these intriguing ideas have been implemented to date. I'm not a customer myself so perhaps someone with more direct experience can contribute concerning their current status. The company is probably best known for providing the general investing public access to IPOs. However, in that regard their anti-flipping rules seem rather draconian. If one sells in the first 60 days, one may be penalized with respect to participation in future IPOs (a common practice) and has to pay a 5% penalty on the sale of the IPO stock ( witcapital.com ). Wit Capital is the only firm I'm aware of that uses the latter penalty. BTW, Wit capital has its own thread, #Subject-18991. I am however hoping to bypass the regular exchanges and market maker/good old boy system. It may or may not happen. Hopefully there will be a mechanism someday where shareholders can directly sell to each other and buy all stocks directly from the company. Some companies sell directly now. In addition to Wit Capital's plans, I have heard a rumor that Instinet plans to offer public access sometime in 1999. ... If anyone doubts that the current system lacks oversight abilities, go to sec.gov they have the actual trial transcripts there. It is horrible the cr@ap the gangsters get away with. And that is only the ones they catch. I saw Comparator Systems people got off with a spanking...the symbol was IDID, and they had the second (or third) biggest volume day in history, and it was all a scam..however they admit no wrong doing...people lost hundreds of millions on that one...in one day. More on other days....Of course there was that well over seen company , what was the name? ...oh, yes, BREE CHEEZ. Plus all the little jitney scams that are ongoing. ... With respect the SEC's and other securities regulator's inability to rein in the stock fraud artists, I believe there should be a lot more criminal securities fraud prosecutions. I think the SEC recognizes this and is taking steps to increase the number of criminal prosecutions (for example, by closer cooperation with the other government agencies that need to be involved, hiring more employees with criminal litigation backgrounds). However, there's still a long way to go. Though I don't have statistics to back up this claim, my suspicion is that the percentage of people prosecuted for shoplifting less than $100 is higher than the percentage of criminal prosecutions of people committing securities fraud netting more than $1,000,000. Apex: Thanks for the coffee!