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Strategies & Market Trends : The Stock Market Bubble -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Terry Whitman who wrote (2358)	11/24/1998 9:44:00 AM
From: Arik T.G.	Respond to of 3339

No, you would have to be over 230 years old to remember the South Sea Bubble.

To: Terry Whitman who wrote (2358)	11/24/1998 10:27:00 AM
From: Lucretius	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3339

I think this thread should be renamed. Bubbles are fun when they are in a beer (G) how about... "Drunken Bubbleland"

To: Terry Whitman who wrote (2358)	11/28/1998 6:35:00 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3339

New Kind of Margin Call Internet Craze Prompts Some Brokers To Up Margins By Jack Reerink NEW YORK (Reuters) - The wild price swings in stocks of Internet companies have prompted some brokerages to require investors who bought these securities on margin, or with borrowed money, to put down more cash. Boosted by demand from investors desperate to buy into the Internet gold rush, stocks of companies such as cyberspace bookseller Amazon.com recently have shot up, sometimes more than 15 percent, or tens of dollars, in a single day. But brokerages, worried by the wild price swings --known as volatility in the trade-- may dampen Internet stock speculation by tightening margin requirements. Under securities regulations, customers buying or selling stocks on margin must put up 50 percent in cash or securities such as Treasury Bills to cover the initial transaction's market value. To maintain the position, however, they need to put up only 25 percent of the holding's value, although most brokerages require a more conservative 35 percent as a minimum maintenance. Waterhouse Securities, a discount brokerage unit of Canada's Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE:TD - news), has raised maintenance margins on some Internet stocks, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday. The measure, which applies to high-flying stocks of companies such as cyberspace auctioneer eBay Inc. and Internet services firm EarthWeb requires customers to have 50 percent in cash for holdings bought or sold on margin, instead of 35 percent. ''Whenever we see a stock that has increased volatility, we take a look at what is best for the firm and customer,'' the Waterhouse spokeswoman said. A random survey of other brokerages showed that some, such as Merrill Lynch and Co. Inc. and Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE:SCH - news), have left their margin requirements unchanged, while others have adjusted them. For example, Fleet Financial Group's Quick & Reilly discount brokerage arm has raised margins on stocks that have shown increased volatility, a spokeswoman said. The move is standard operating procedure for the brokerage, added the spokeswoman, who could not identify the stocks affected by the measure. Rumors about brokerages, and even regulators, tightening margin requirements for trading in Internet stocks surfaced earlier this week. But a spokeswoman of the regulatory arm of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) told Reuters regulators are not about to meddle with margins. ''Any sort of change in the margin requirements would have to be proposed to the (NASD) board and then sent on to the (Securities and Exchange Commission), (and) we have nothing even under consideration,'' NASD spokeswoman Nancy Condon said. An SEC spokesman declined comment, Investors who fall below margin requirements receive the infamous margin call from their broker, who tells them to pony up more cash or liquidate their stock position. If a customer doesn't pay up and a forced liquidation fails to cover the investor's debts, the brokerage gets stuck with the bill. Internet brokerage AmeriTrade Holding Corp. recently wrote off $1.6 million, in part because customers speculating in shares of small companies went bust when some of these small cap stocks plummeted over the summer. ''We have put in place better techniques to implement our (margin) policies much quicker,'' said AmeriTrade's chief executive, Joe Ricketts, in a brief telephone interview. AmeriTrade requires maintenance margins of up to 80 percent for stocks whose price ''starts getting beyond anything that is reasonable investment,'' Ricketts said, naming as examples stocks that carry a price to earnings (PE) ratio of more than 25. Analysts often use PE ratios, which are calculated by dividing a company's stock price by its earnings per share, as a method of valuing corporations. Although Ricketts would not pinpoint stocks included in the firm's 80-percent margin requirement, Internet stocks are likely to fall into the group because they often lack the second part of the PE equation -- earnings.