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Microcap & Penny Stocks : HeartSoft Incorporated (HTSF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gerald Merna who wrote (1013)	1/30/1999 10:00:00 AM
From: Benjamin Shell	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1781

Interesting day on Friday guys, since HTSF became a little wider known to investors a few weeks ago, I am amazed and perplexed almost hourly in watching the trading. I think it was Rick who commented above that the MM's screwed the bid/ask up to calm the stock down - I really don't know if we can determine WHY it happened all I can say for sure is that with my vast experience in watching HTSF trade, I've never seen that happen for SO long during the day - errors happen but for minutes, not nearly 30 minutes. Looking at the chart late Friday, it looked like Mount Everest with the bid/ask jumping all over the place. One thing is for sure, we are quickly approaching 1.7 million shares in 11 trading days, and I saw the professionals confused Friday afternoon - its up to you guys to figure that one out, and my job to keep your little company moving forward! It is fun watching them scramble though... Any professionals out there who could help explain the following observed signs and tell us what really might happen? Publicly observed facts about HTSF and the "price setters" (MM): 1. Stock had hit 5 year low due to low buying pressure. 2. Street was holding a small long position. Fairly good estimate is 3-4 or the 13 MMs actively trade HTSF based upon historical info from them. So, total long position before January 14, 1999, had to be below 100,000 shares, and most likely around 50,000. 3. In the past, trades both on the buy-side and the sell-side have usually crossed an average of 2.5 times between MMs. About 8 months ago, I saw a single net-sell into the market of 9,000 shares cross in 4 minutes 7 times. During the volume since 1/14/99, hardly a since trade has crossed in ANY share amount within 2 hours. So, this is a major change in the stock's trading pattern for 4-5 years even during run-ups and sell-offs. In fact one trade for 50,000 shares at the ask stuck and never budged the bid/ask. 4. 13 Market makers have handled 1.7 million shares of stock in 11 trading sessions with buying out-pacing selling by a fact or at least 5:1 when analyzing trade by trade. WE WOULD APPRECIATE ANY REAL experience here - I receive at least 3-5 calls a day about this question from, well, lets say people who know about such things. Your comments would help when people call and ask?!? Benjamin