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

To: BradC who wrote (10250)	11/12/1998 9:35:00 PM
From: SeasideHeights	Respond to of 16892

MY APOLOGIES TO DATEK. I SEE THEY FINALLY PUT INTEREST MONEY INTO OUR ACCOUNTS. ONLY 12 DAYS LATE THIS TIME. WHAT'S THE RECORD?

To: BradC who wrote (10250)	11/12/1998 9:46:00 PM
From: BradC	Respond to of 16892

<RISK> Good point, but I would have thought Datek (or the clearing corp) would be on the hook whether or not I actually withdraw the funds. When I sell a stock I sure hope I don't have to depend on the creditworthiness of the buyer to get my money. And those funds from the sale are also insured up to the applicable limits. This element of risk to the broker and/or clearing corp. sounds like a plausible explanation as to why they would restrict further trading before settlement. The thing that continues to interest me is why Datek is the only one to allow immediate use of the credit. The brokerage business in the US is so huge and competitive that I find it very interesting one up-start broker can stand out like that. Are they taking on too much risk? What would they do in a major market meltdown where margin calls could not be met? Brad

To: BradC who wrote (10250)	11/12/1998 11:01:00 PM
From: Randall Thomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16892

<<<the ability to short nearly any stock> This is another interesting thing about Datek. They seem to get very high marks for availability of shorts, but there have also been recent complaints about an increase of unexpected buy-ins.>> I have a theory on this. Datek appears to allow more shorts (i.e. presumed availability) than even Bear Stearns, Merrill, etc. This simply does not compute. I think they do not check actual borrowability until end of day/overnight. I simply do not believe they actually were able firmly verify borrowability and get more hard to find shares to borrow than major wirehouses. I think the only way you cannot short a stock on datek is when they have manually gone in and prohibited it (presumably it has come to their attention that there is none of a particular stock to borrow.) comments?