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Non-Tech : Ashton Technology (ASTN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Richard Eknoian Jr. who wrote (188)	4/17/1999 10:51:00 PM
From: don denson	Respond to of 4443

I generally agree with your TA analysis Richard (though I'm not even much of an amateur). There are some odd ball tidbits that make me wonder what will happen. Late Friday, there was unusual buying strength, especially for a Friday! wow! I think some may be happy with 100% (as many came in at 4). Much grapevine work will be done this weekend. I think the buying may tend to offset the profit-taking early on. Also, there are strong claims that "strong hands" are on the scene at this point. Now I've never seen this up close, but in the tech market with a stock with such a small float at this point, these guys claim they can hold the mm's at bay- that will be something to see! We are still waiting to see if CNBC will be including ATG in their ATS piece- confirmation of this will keep interest very strong throughout Mon as we wait and see. Frankly, many of us suspect that the GA announcement is overdue- news of that too could begin leaking and bolster buying strength. ATG at IPO went to almost 15 I understand. My feeling, FWIW, is that this will be a reasonable top for this initial run- might hit it Tues AM if the hints of news or TV coverage is strong. A correction from there would be obvious. If things are confirmed, this or next week, many others will provide support into July 1. Of course, after the machine is turned on- well, you need to be positioned. I like to think that maybe a split would be announced prior to then- but I'm just a dreamer. If you are right about 6.50, it will ring the bell for me to pounce! Gonna be interesting to watch! any way it goes.

To: Richard Eknoian Jr. who wrote (188)	4/18/1999 5:53:00 PM
From: AJ Berger	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4443

Wall St. Hungry for Alternative Trading Systems a similar system competitor's month growth: - OptiMark went live trading one symbol (MMM) on January 29th, 1999. The number of tradable symbols listed increased to five on February 4th, 35 on February 10th, 105 on February 17th and 205 on February 23rd. Daily trading volume has trended upwards over time and as additional symbols were added. The average daily trading volume over the last five trading days was 1,450,000 shares per day. At month's end, 135 buy and sell side firms were "Trade-Ready" in OptiMark, up from 114 on January 29th. Trade-Ready means that a firm is fully ready to trade, having the technology available on its traders' desks, all legal agreements in place, trading limits established, clearing brokers designated and traders trained to use the system. Uptime of the OptiMark Trading System was 99%, with less than two hours unavailable during the 20 trading days to date. Wide Web at optimark.com. - Here's more Bullish potential talk for alternative trading systems: - The former exchange specialist and Instinet Corp. chief executive has invested almost $5 million of his own money into his company, OptiMark Technologies Inc., and has convinced investors like Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Dow Jones & Co. to sink a total of $150 million into his creation. They are all betting that the super computer-driven system he designed with his partner, Terry Rickard, will change the way the world's institutions trade stocks. The payoff could be huge. Lupien casually throws around predictions of 100% growthÑper quarterÑfor OptiMark, and confidently talks of the potential for hitting $1 billion in revenues within three or four years. Such projections for a company that has yet to generate a single dollar in revenues would seem absurd if it weren't for Lupien's track record. Lupien has been a force behind two of the biggest electronic alterations of the overall structure of U.S. equity marketsÑthe creation in 1978 of the Intermarket Trading System that links all of the nation's exchanges, and the establishment of Instinet as a significant market force in the 1980s. - YOU GOTTA LOVE THIS PART: - So when Lupien says that he is sitting atop the crest of the next wave of the future, Wall Street perks up and opens its checkbooks. In the $100 million private placement that OptiMark wrapped up in September, the investor list read like a veritable Who's Who of finance: PaineWebber, Bankers Trust, Hambrecht & Quist, Credit Suisse First Boston, Loomis, Sayles & Co. and 26 other firms anteed up funds. More than 90 broker dealers, including 24 of the top 25 firms in the field, and 155 buy-side institutions already have signed on to use the OptiMark system when it makes its much-anticipated and often-delayed debut as part of the Pacific Exchange. Nasdaq even plans to add the system to its "market-of-markets" in the spring, a development that Lupien calls a "company-maker." All of this early success has not gone unnoticed by the powers that currently dominate stock trading. In fact, it has raised the ire of the New York Stock Exchange, which charges that Lupien and OptiMark are trying to use the new system as a "back door" to gain entry into its market. To protect its own interestsÑand that of its member firmsÑthe NYSE is fighting to limit OptiMark's access to the ITS. The Securities and Exchange Commission will settle the matter, presumably before OptiMark's launch, which is now scheduled for early January.