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

To: mst2000 who wrote (659)	5/4/1999 11:17:00 PM
From: Sir Auric Goldfinger	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 4443

Humble questions: "One thing that has been very impressive about ATG's approach to operational status is their arrangement for B/D's to provide liquidity (at what price? they don't take risk for free)to the system by committing to match unmatched "dedicated" trades at the VWAP. One of the major criticisms of Optimark's more publicized ATS has been that the match percentage has been so low (under 20%)leaving institutional users frustrated and less than enthusiastic. Apart from the simplicity of VWAP and its acceptance as a trading standard even in its current synthetic form (i.e., non-anonymous slicing of trades spread over the day), efforts to ensure liquidity from the get go appear very likely to ensure that "going live" in July will have an impact from the start." Optimark are not fools, they include the founder on Instinet. And forget "academic studies" It's all bs until it's proven. ANY institution will try a system if they think it might save money and that is what the status is as we speak. Anybody ever hear of the Hiesenberg uncertainty principle? Well it applies here since if you get enough people trying to place orders to beat the VWAP, well then they effect the VWAP itself. BTW, for the uninitiated, VWAP is not a new term, good institutions demand and good BD's deliver at or below the VWAP when buying and above it when selling (or selling short in our case). As I said earlier, anybody can hire a buy side broker for 1 cent and they deliver all day long all year long. Guess who pays above the VWAP? Surprise as Buffet would say, if your playing poker and after 30 minutes you don't know who the patsy is, well you are the patsy (retail pays).

To: mst2000 who wrote (659)	5/4/1999 11:45:00 PM
From: Stuart T	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4443

Welcome MST You are one of the few assets to the ASTN Yahoo board. Your knowledge of ASTN has to be about the best that I have seen (all others please do not be offended). I am happy to have you and your prospective on the SI ASTN board. PS: Please DON'T invite Blitz to this board. :)

To: mst2000 who wrote (659)	5/5/1999 8:19:00 AM
From: Zeev Hed	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4443

MST, when agreeing to execute a transaction at a weighed volume average price, someone is taking on the risk that this price may change while still holding the bag, who is taking on this risk for those unmatched transaction? Such activities require very deep pockets (in principle these should average out, but in practice, one can go broke doing this). I would presume that whomever takes on this risk will share with ASTN in the (now postulated, but still to be verified) $.015/share. Do we know who supplies the capital to keep the system "smooth" in turbulent periods? In essence, you can word the same question by asking during what kind of markets will ASTN system be preferred? I would guess when normal electronic order matching (during trading hours) is not liquid enough to narrow the spreads, but these periods are exactly when the risks of rapid shifts in sentiments occur. If ASTN is the bag holder, they are pitifully under capitalized for the task. If someone else is, then they will take the lion share of that $.015/share. What is wrong with that argument? Zeev