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

To: AJ Berger who wrote (225)	4/21/1999 12:32:00 AM
From: LTK007	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4443

Thanks AJ,that is a big help--by the way,warrant action on NAVR proved no problem as they came into action just at the run-up with heavy volume on NAVR was happening,and were just rapidly consumed. So,as you say,if this warrants come at the right time they will be absorbed with no problem.Max

To: AJ Berger who wrote (225)	4/21/1999 7:53:00 AM
From: wily	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4443

U.S. SEC Quietly Revives NASD Plan for Central Limit-Order Book bloomberg.com Zarb pushed the proposal as a way to improve Nasdaq's ability to compete with the New York Stock Exchange and electronic trading networks like Reuters Group Plc's Instinet Corp. ____________________________________________________________________ U.S. SEC Quietly Revives NASD Plan for Central Limit-Order Book Washington, April 20 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has quietly revived a controversial National Association of Securities Dealers proposal that would create a central market for customer orders at specified prices. The original plan, dubbed ''Next Nasdaq,'' was shot down by SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt last year after the NASD couldn't secure support from many brokerages that trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The proposal was championed by NASD Chairman Frank Zarb as a way to lower trading costs and attract investors to the second largest U.S. stock market. It drew fire, though, from firms that said it would put Nasdaq in competition with NASD's member brokerages. The SEC issued a terse statement about the plan yesterday, buried in a notice about another NASD proposal: ''The comment period on Nasdaq's Limit Order Book Proposal has been reopened,'' the SEC said in its daily digest of announcements. ''Limit orders'' are stock orders typically placed by mutual fund companies and other institutional investors to buy or sell stock at designated prices. SEC officials had no comment today. The public will have until June 1 to comment on the revived NASD proposal before the SEC decides whether to adopt it as a rule change. Zarb's proposal would create a broad market for limit orders, which now are placed with a particular broker-dealer. Offers to buy or sell now can interact only with matching orders from customers of that dealer. Under the proposal, investors could work through a broker to place orders directly with Nasdaq, without going through the dealers who now handle all Nasdaq trades. The SEC originally had issued the proposal for public comment in March 1998. Zarb pushed the proposal as a way to improve Nasdaq's ability to compete with the New York Stock Exchange and electronic trading networks like Reuters Group Plc's Instinet Corp. The SEC, though, quietly let it die when the Securities Industry Association, a brokerage trade group, strongly opposed the plan. The request for new public comments signals the SEC is preparing to reconsider the proposal in the context of the other NASD plans. ''The reopening of the comment period was done at the initiative of the SEC,'' Nasdaq spokesman Scott Peterson said. The SEC also published the limit order proposal April 15 on its Web site, incorporating it in another NASD proposal that would consolidate Nasdaq's two main trading platforms, SelectNet and the Small Order Execution System. A third proposal, issued by the SEC earlier this month, would create two categories of limit- order quotes -- one for investors, the other for firms making proprietary trades from their own accounts. ''Because these proposals are largely alternatives to each other, market participants should have the chance to formally comment on the limit-order book proposal in light of the SOES/SelectNet and agency quote proposals,'' the SEC wrote in its solicitation of comments. Although the limit-order proposal was included in a notice about the SelectNet plan, it is being considered by the SEC as a separate plan. The SEC's revival of the proposal caught both the SIA and mutual fund companies, which supported the original plan, by surprise. ''I don't imagine this will produce any different results from last time,'' said Bernard Madoff, a New York broker-dealer who heads the SIA's trading committee. ''We don't think Nasdaq should be operating a central limit-order book in competition with its member firms.'' Madoff also reiterated the SIA's previous criticism that Zarb's plan would bypass the dealers, also known as market- makers, that risk their money to create liquidity on Nasdaq. The NASD proposal had been enthusiastically supported by mutual fund companies and other institutional investors. ''It would give all investors access to the best possible orders,'' said Michael Cormack, chief stock trader for mutual fund company American Century Investment Management in Kansas City, Missouri. ''It would put Nasdaq at a higher level of transparency, immediacy and access than the NYSE.'' Limit orders, which are rapidly growing in popularity, account for about a third of all Nasdaq trades and are increasingly being placed on electronic networks such as Instinet. Zarb responded to Levitt's rebuff of his plan last year by proposing a couple of scaled-back alternatives now before the SEC. One would provide two sets of quotes for limit orders. The other, which has not yet been issued for comment by the SEC, would let dealers charge additional trading fees for executing limit orders.