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Non-Tech : Barnes & Noble (BKS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (1143)	5/12/1999 9:20:00 PM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1691

Agreed. IPO is great for BKS and will light a big fire under it soon. Low volumn due to traders staying out for now. GS doesn't like traders because they don't hold longterm. They've said so publicly per their own IPO. BNBN will not be given out to any trader types. How and why are they keeping the price low? I'm no expert, but with low volumn it doesn't take much money by their standards to control things. They can simply sell every time it upticks and use slightly lower ask bids to buy. What is the catch? Well if all us small investors believe the stock won't go up prior to the IPO then it won't (as much). But I firmly believe that this shenanigans won't go on for long. I'm a big optimist on BKS and intend to make quite a bit of money on this investment. You can get the underwriters want it to go way up too, just not quite yet and without the wild swings and volotility. Then again, I could be wrong about all of this. But I am believing what I am seeing. Still very LONG BKS and conting down the days.

To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (1143)	5/12/1999 9:29:00 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 1691

Your thought process makes sense. I don't think that there are any conspiracies at play here, just a lack of interest. This thread has become more active than the stock. The momentum players will come in eventually and those of us that want to exit prior to the IPO may only have a short window of opportunity. I also think that traders are becoming more sophisticated about these back door plays and that they have done the math on the post IPO valuation for BKS. I still stand by my analysis at: Message 9431178 Sorry, AS.

To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (1143)	5/13/1999 6:59:00 AM
From: Mark[ox5]	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1691

Thank you for a valid post -- nice to see ... Refreshing change from what's been posted here Mark

To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (1143)	5/13/1999 12:24:00 PM
From: Lane Hall-Witt	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1691

I agree with your emphasis on the volume, which is non-existent. But this light volume is creating an environment where some minor (with an emphasis on minor) price manipulation can take place. The range is so tight that it obviously isn't a big deal to those of us who are willing to wait it out, but it does have two short-term effects: (1) allowing institutional players to enter the stock and options quietly at a relatively cheap price, and (2) keeping the retail mo-mo players out, at least for now. Institutional buying interest has far outweighed selling interest this morning (by nearly a 4:1 ratio). Not very long ago, 17K shares went through on the bid, doubtless picked up by the same institutional buyer who put in a 17K-share buy message at 34 3/4 before the market opened. It looked to me like the specialist sat on the ask and pushed the price down into that buyer's range, rather than making the buyer come up and meet a higher price. As far as the price action goes: big deal. Quibbling over 1/4s at this point is ridiculous. My interest in these kinds of maneuvers is that I believe a Specialist who helps his buddies get in might also help his buddies get out. That's the rosy scenario. I also have some scenarios in mind that aren't so rosy: in particular, that there's pressure from BKS or its institutional holders to maintain some price stability for the long-term good of the company. That wouldn't be so good for us, as short-term traders, but it would be quite reasonable from the perspective of the company and its long-term investors. The atmosphere on these threads -- especially over at Yahoo! -- gets overly hysterical as longs and shorts wage a war for hearts and minds. That leads to bad investing technique. But I think it's fair to think soberly about the activities of the Specialist, because this is one of the factors we have to consider as we develop our risk-reward profiles for the stock. Which scenario, if any, is true? I don't know. But it's useful to run scenarios that can make us more careful in our investing.