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

To: mst2000 who wrote (837)	5/8/1999 7:13:00 AM
From: Randy Elder	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4443

mst: I've been lurking here for a while and share Zeev's wait and see attitude as I can see a rational person taking either a long or short position depending on their focus (although the insider selling and toxic convertibles make me suspect that the long case is likely overblown). It does seem like whether or not ASTN can provide consistent order-matching will make a big difference in terms of ultimate success or failure and the other BDs would have to step in to help make that work. What I don't understand is given that they would essentially be providing a valuable service to ASTN, while taking on a certain level of risk, why should they pay for the honor, ensuring that their volume in the traded shares crosses at a fraction worse than the VWAP (and as the 'house', I would expect them to shoot for a fraction above VWAP)? If I was a BD, I would be inclined to hold out for a cut of the commission on the trade that I'm matching. Am I missing something?