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Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mama Bear who wrote (30765)	4/16/1999 1:38:00 PM
From: Lucky888	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 122087

Whatever I short, it goes up right after it. Shorted some ZSUN today@ 15+ , now it is 17 Shorted some CYOE a few days ago around $6+ . now it is $7+ Shorted some MTEX @22+ and now it is 24+ man! L.

To: Mama Bear who wrote (30765)	4/16/1999 1:43:00 PM
From: J.Y. Wang	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 122087

Good question, Barb. Here's the answer: Let's look at NTBK and AMZN because they are both retailers (AMZN retails books, CD, etc. and NTBK retails money). Believe it or not, net banking has less barriers to entry than media retailing. Why? Money is the ultimate commodity product and there are no differentiating factors whatsoever. AMZN needs to net up a distribution system, vendor system (get vendors to drop ship for them, set up billing system, a lot of infrastructure costs), sophisticated web site, a community-like feeling (book reviews, etc.), a way to get books no longer in print, and so on. In addition, people browse AMZN like they might browse a regular store (one of the few barriers to entry AMZN has). What does a net bank have to do to retail money? Not much. Do people browse banks? No. When choosing a bank, does anyone care about anything besides the interest they pay, the interest they charge and the fees they charge? (Assume all net banks have the same crappy service we are used to with internet companies and retailers.) Probably not. Do people care about what the "reviews" others wrote about the money they borrowed from a net bank last week? Absolutely not. The three things people care about -- deposit interest, loan interest, fees -- can be looked up easily for 2, 10, or 500 net banks. There are really no competitive advantages or barriers to entry a net bank can have. The minimal barriers to entry AMZN has are huge compared to the barriers to entry net banks will have. Again, NTBK may have a decent short or medium term run, but in the long run it will be just another net bank.