Wednesday, November 27, 2024

PaineWebber’s Controversial Withdrawal From Regionals

In a controversial victory for the New York Stock Exchange, PaineWebber closed all of the regional specialist units managed by PaineWebber Specialists.

PaineWebber had operated specialist units on the Cincinnati Stock Exchange, the Boston Stock Exchange and the Pacific Exchange, covering more than 500 stocks. In all, 35 employees were laid off with the closings. The firm will still manage its specialist unit on the NYSE.

PaineWebber declined to comment on the decision, saying only that it was part of an ongoing reevaluation of the firm's equity business. The firm will retain membership and continue to route orders to the three regional exchanges.

But the move by New York-based PaineWebber was significant in the heated rivalry between the NYSE and the regional exchanges over market share.

"The NYSE is absolutely recruiting business for their exchange," said David Colker, chief executive of the Cincinnati Stock Exchange, on the loss of PaineWebber. "I am concerned for the public investor that 85 percent of the trading in NYSE stocks is done in one place."

The regional stock exchanges function primarily as alternative sources of liquidity for NYSE-listed stocks. The regionals offer low cost structures and slightly different rules for investors looking to execute orders in listed stocks. More than 15 percent of volume in NYSE stocks is traded away from the Big Board.

Citing an interest in investor protection, the NYSE has lobbied with member firms for an increase in order flow. And in numerous instances, the Big Board has succeeded.

In 1995, brokerage giant Merrill Lynch & Co. closed their specialist operations on the regional exchanges, and announced their intention to route all listed orders only to the NYSE. The firm alleged it would get better prices for customer orders at the Big Board.

But Robert Jennings, a professor of finance at Indiana University who studied the move by Merrill, suggested that the firm may have received concessions from NYSE specialists for sending all orders to the NYSE.

"There was probably political pressure for Merrill to pull out of the regionals," Jennings added.

In 1996, the former Smith Barney followed suit. The firm – now a part of New York-based Salomon Smith Barney – closed its specialist operations on the Cincinnati Stock Exchange after sustained pressure from the NYSE.

And when PaineWebber made its announcement on April 16, it was not considered surprising. A source at the Boston Stock Exchange said the firm had given prior indication that it would pull out of the regional exchanges.

The source added that political pressure may have largely contributed to PaineWebber's decision. In fact, Joseph Grano, president of PaineWebber, has publicly remarked on the heavy recruitment made by the NYSE.

"He's [NYSE Chairman Richard Grasso] been yelling at me for three years, saying, 'What are you doing, the order flow should be coming to the primary market,'" Grano said in an April article in the Wall Street Journal.

Nevertheless, Grano has denied that PaineWebber's decision was influenced by Grasso's lobbying or political pressure.

Tumult

Separately, PaineWebber has displayed a tumult within its own equity operations in recent months that suggest a reevaluation of operations.

In November, seven Nasdaq traders left the firm, including head trader Richard Bruno. PaineWebber refused to comment whether the resignations were forced or voluntary. Patrick Davis and William Heenan succeeded Bruno as co-heads of over-the-counter trading. Just two months later, Heenan left the firm to join the Nasdaq desk at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in New York.

And over the last 12 months, the firm stopped making markets in more than 200 Nasdaq stocks, cutting its list from 735 to 525.

Nasdaq Eyes Opportunity in Germany

german flag waving in the wind in front of deep blue sky

German consumers are next in a campaign to stimulate awareness of Nasdaq among European investors.

Most recently, Nasdaq concluded a $10 million television advertising campaign in London aimed at encouraging British investors to snap up shares of Nasdaq-listed stocks.

More television advertising in London is planned. As part of the same effort, Nasdaq is launching a web site that has been custom-designed for the British investor.

The site will provide Nasdaq share prices, as well as share prices from other major U.S. exchanges, delayed 20 minutes, London Stock Exchange share prices delayed 20 minutes and business and equity-market news.

Nasdaq said France and Switzerland will be targeted later, but first it will develop a strategy for the German market. At press time, Nasdaq did not release full details.

Some equity-trading pros, however, think Nasdaq’s attempts to penetrate the European mainland market will be tougher than attempts in the U.K. Mainland Europeans do not have a mature equity culture. Only six percent of Germans are estimated to own shares, directly or indirectly, through mutual funds, compared with 25 percent of British investors and 43 percent of their Americans cousins.

Nasdaq is undeterred, however. John Wall, president of Nasdaq International, said investor interest in Nasdaq “increased very significantly” since the television campaign in London was launched.

NASD’s OTC Shootout

The National Association of Securities Dealers is planning more crack downs on trading scams in non-Nasdaq, over-the-counter securities.

But the NASD's attempts to drive the sleaze artists out of the non-Nasdaq, OTC market could end in disappointment. About 8,000 stocks qualify as non-Nasdaq, OTC securities, trading on the NASD-owned, electronic OTC Bulletin Board, and the manually-traded, independently-run pink sheets.

While the vast majority of OTC stocks are issued by legitimate entities supported by honorable market makers, a small minority give traders a black eye and rouse the NASD's enforcement machine.

The OTC Bulletin Board, in particular, seems to attract much of the criticism.

"The biggest problem in the area of small-cap fraud has been with the OTC Bulletin Board," said Phil Feigin, securities commissioner for the state of Colorado. "There's not very good enforcement of the bulletin-board market."

The OTC Bulletin Board, a somewhat secretive world where the bid and asked spreads can be gargantuan, is perceived as a breeding ground for some of the market's most unscrupulous personalities.

With stock markets scaling new heights, Feigin and others believe that investors' temptations to parlay their capital gains to even greater heights could motivate sinister traders to find avenues to perpetrate their fraud, in the face of new enforcement regulations.

"You can make enforcement harder, but it's not going to decrease the level of fraudulent activity," Feigin said. "These are people with sky-high egos that honestly believe that they won't get caught."

NASD regulators have proposed three initiatives designed to protect investors from being ripped-off by fraudulent broker dealers.

In a release, the NASD said the initiatives proposed:

* Allow only those companies that report their current financial information to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and banking or insurance regulators, to be quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board. (About 50 percent of the OTC companies currently report their financial results to the SEC.)

*Require brokers, before they recommend a transaction in an OTC security, to review current financial statements on the company they are recommending.

*Require that investors receive a standard disclosure statement emphasizing the differences between OTC securities and other market-listed securities prior to the initial purchase of an OTC security.

"There has been a dramatic increase in the number of micro-cap securities in the public market place," said Frank Zarb, NASD chief executive, in a prepared statement. "These measures are designed to ensure that the level of integrity that exists in other parts of the market is achieved in the smaller-capitalized section as well."

At the same time, the SEC has its own proposals on non-Nasdaq, OTC securities that would put more responsibility for investor protection on market makers. At press time, the NASD's proposals are expected to be submitted to the SEC for final approval and public comment.

Investor scams have been around for as long as Wall Street has existed. But today's scams may be more menancing, as evident by well-publicized reports of organized crime infiltrating the OTC market.

Mob tactics on the market-making side allegedly have included the intimidation of legitimate market makers who have refused to artificially inflate the value of stocks. Naked short-selling is reportedly another favorite tactic.

On the retail-brokerage side, scam artists have used the infamous three-call, cold call. A broker blindly throws out feelers, asking investors whether they would be interested in positive news affecting a security, calls a second time to reinforce that interest among naive investors, and closes the sale when the purported positive news develops.

Some brokers dupe a "reload list" of investors snared in the past; others dupe affinity groups or associations. Another tactic is sales of stocks in companies registered out of state, making it difficult for investors to get specific information about a company's operations.

When investors do purchase a stock and later decide to sell, corrupt brokers either won't be available or will require the investor to purchase a different stock in order to get out of their current position, Feigin said.

To be sure, the NASD has generally been tightening listing standards in the full universe of OTC stocks to help fight sleaze. And many investors are happy with how their small-cap and non-Nasdaq OTC holdings are traded and perform. Indeed, many good companies have no option but to go public on the OTC market.

"We really had no choice," said Gary Placek, head of syndicate operations at Robert W. Baird & Co., a Milwaukee-based firm, which placed OTC offerings for Tarpon Coast Bancorp (OTC:TCBA) and Macatawa Bank (OTC:MCBC), two new names on the OTC Bulletin Board in 1998.

"These are de novo banks that wouldn't have been able to qualify for Nasdaq Small-Cap listing, and certainly not for National Market System listing," Placek said. "They're not projected to make any revenues for a couple of years."

The initial listing of all stocks trading on the OTC Bulletin Board requires sponsorship by an NASD-affiliated broker dealer.

At press time, market makers in Tarpon included: Alan C. Ewing & Co.,Tampa; Hill, Thomson, Magid & Co., Jersey City; and Paragon Securities, New York. Market makers in Macatawa included The Ohio Company, Columbus, Ohio; Herzog, Heine, Geduld, Jersey City; and Monroe Parker Securities, Rochester, N.Y.

"It's turned out to be a real nice market for [the two banks]," said Placek. Both of the companys' stocks have benefited from investor appetite for community banks, Placek noted. Tarpon closed trading April 28 at 15 3/8, 53.75 percent above its Jan. 26 debut at $10 a share. Macatawa closed the session April 28 at 15 3/4, 57.5 percent above its April 1 debut, also at $10 a share.

All told, 1,200 new companies made the pink sheets and the OTC Bulletin Board their home last year. Of that number, 14 companies went public via the OTC Bulletin Board, raising $102.4 million in new capital. These include four banking entities; three healthcare-related companies; two issuers from the high-tech and telecommunication sectors; two food wholesalers; two miscellaneous holding companies; and one foreign entity.

The average return above offering for these companies through the close of trading April 28 was 6.86 percent.

While market sources believe the NASD initiatives give investors more protection, others suggest additional steps may need to be taken.

"After being in this business for 30 years, you realize there's no silver bullet," Feigin said. He suggested that closer cooperation, including reciprocity agreements between federal regulators and state regulators, might help.

"The NASD and the SEC could beef up their enforcement actions if they were permitted to take into account an order issued in a particular state," he said. Under the current laws, individuals convicted of security fraud in Colorado by Feigin's office can escape detection by moving to any of the other 49 jurisdictions.

Michael Robinson, a spokesman for NASD Regulation, the NASD's regulatory arm, declined to comment on these laws, but he did note that federal regulators are considering at least one other alternative, potential authority for the NASD to halt trading in OTC Bulletin Board securities under certain circumstances.

Voyage on a Great New Carrier of Information: Intranets Promise Traders a Wave of Low-Cost Financ

Internet-based networking technology is heading toward the trading floor, promising traders faster and easier access to a wide array of market data and analytics.

The technology has spawned Intranets, linking traders to each other and to information resources both inside and outside their firms.

Intranets are a type of private network using Internet technology to allow electronic communications among users. A company e-mail system is a good example.

As Intranets begin arriving on trading floors over the next few years, desktops will undergo radical transformations.

Standalone computer workstations and terminals will be replaced by "thin clients" – stripped-down PCs costing as little as $500 – that are designed specifically for Intranet use.

Intranet technology's impact on traders will be immense, said Lawrence Tabb, group director of The Tower Group, a Newton, Mass.-based firm that analyzes technology trends in the banking and securities industries. "Intranets will give traders a degree of data flexibility and integration they can now only dream about."

According to Tabb, the era of separate terminals handling individual proprietary data feeds will pass into history.

"Traders will be able to receive information provided by a wide variety of suppliers, fed directly to their workstation via an Intranet," he said. "Their biggest problem will be finding the best sources in a sea of information."

Cheaper Information

Much to the consternation of proprietary financial-content providers, a great deal of the information Intranets can pull in from the Internet is comparatively inexpensive, or even free.

While not a substitute for the proprietary news streams, the materials traders can have delivered to their desktop from the Internet provide an additional level of information and analytic support.

TheStreet.com (www.thestreet.com) attracts subscribers with yearly fees of less than $9 per desktop, depending on the Intranet's size.

The information on the web site isn't as deep as the content carried by the proprietary providers, but is still quite extensive, and includes company news, opinion columns, delayed and historical quotes, Securities and Exchange Commission documents and intraday and historical charts for more than 24,000 stocks, funds and indices.

Alan Maguire, strategic sales manager for TheStreet.com, says the upstart service fills a previously empty niche.

"Prior to the arrival of companies like ours, information was primarily the domain of established vendors, like Reuters or Bloomberg, who covered the markets with plain facts, or research houses," he said.

"They have often an axe to grind regarding the markets and companies they comment on," Maguire added. "We bring a fresh, original approach to financial news by delivering an unbiased, insider's view of the industry."

Free Source

A free, Internet-based information source traders can turn to is BusinessVue 2.0 (www.businessvue.com), a program that pulls together information from multiple sites and sends it to traders through their Intranet-connected desktop.

In its final test stages at press time, the software allows traders to obtain corporate profiles, current and archived news stories, analyst recommendations, SEC filings and delayed and historical stock quotes. The product can also export data to a variety of standard business programs, including Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.

"We're ancillary to the Bloomberg machine and other products traders are using. We provide another data stream they can use to make informed decisions," said Denny Michael, vice president of marketing for Alpha Microsystems, the Santa Ana, Calif.-based company that publishes BusinessVue 2.0.

Although the advertiser-supported software and content is available at no cost, Alpha also markets an advertising-free version (with customized data feeds) that more closely resembles the service offered by proprietary-content providers.

Costs start at $10,000 per site, plus monthly and per-user fees that vary according to the size and scope of the Intranet. Michael believes that all financial information will eventually be delivered to traders via the Internet and Intranets.

"You're already seeing the proprietary providers moving in that direction," he said. "The stranglehold these companies once had is being eliminated by the Internet."

Information Overload

While Internet and Intranet-supplied data streams offer traders an almost unlimited array of information sources, the sheer volume of incoming material can pose a problem similar to that of visiting an all-you-can-eat buffet – serious indigestion. Combine Internet and Intranet-supplied data with proprietary feeds, and the situation can be overwhelming.

"Simultaneous access to data from multiple real-time and historic sources is a critical problem confronting the trading floor in virtually every firm today," Tabb said. "The ability to access multiple data sources from an integrated graphical interface meets a critical need."

To answer the problem of information overload, Leading Market Technologies (www.lmt-expo.com), a Cambridge, Mass. software developer, has created MarketBrowser.

The Intranet-based charting and graphing solution aims to help traders view and analyze market data from multiple sources simultaneously. The product integrates Reuters, Open Bloomberg, FAME, LIM and other major sources of real-time and historical financial-market data, as well as a wide selection of Internet and Intranet-delivered information.

"Different data formats and communications protocols across multiple market-data sources has often meant that traders, for example, either can't get the data they need, or require multiple terminals to display it," said Jay Smith, chairman of Leading Market Technologies. "Even then, they can't combine data into the same application. MarketBrowser solves these problems."

In addition to its information-sorting capabilities, MarketBrowser provides an on -screen button bar to allow quick changing of the symbol or periodiciy of any chart. The software also includes facilities for drawing trend lines, annotating charts and printing. Users can cut and paste MarketBrowser charts and graphs to Microsoft Office and other PC applications for use in client reports and other documents.

Knight Securities, a Jersey City-based Nasdaq wholesaler, is a MarketBrowser user. "We bought MarketBrowser because we didn't want to depend on a data vendor for our charting and analytics," said Kenneth Pasternak, Knight's president and chief executive. "With MarketBrowser, we get an outstanding graphical display of market data and the ability to choose whatever data sources we want."

Intelligent Agents

Intranet-linked workstations can also take advantage of powerful software search tools, known as intelligent agents. Intelligent agents are self-contained programs that can be tailored by users seeking specific types of information.

Data Grabber, an intelligent-agent program from Cyber Vista (www.cybervista.com), allows traders to automatically harvest data from an array of online sources, including information services and web sites.

A trader could, for example, instruct Data Grabber to capture stock-quote information at designated times, and have the data automatically placed into a spreadsheet for analysis. The software can also be used to monitor web sites for product announcements, financial statements and other types of breaking information.

Nicholas Roche, vice president of sales and marketing for San Mateo, Calif.-based CyberVista, said Data Grabber can help traders quickly zero-in on key information. "Data Grabber acts like a silent assistant, collecting information and allowing traders to follow all markets 24 hours a day," he said.

Roche noted that the software can even alert a trader to breaking information while away from the desktop. "Data Grabber can be linked to a user's e-mail, alphanumeric pager and fax machine to deliver information anytime, anywhere," he said.

Streaming Media

Another powerful Internet and Intranet-oriented technology that will likely impact traders in the years ahead is streaming-media technology, which delivers live or pre-recorded video and audio programming directly to the desktop. Streaming media is already available to firms with networked trading floors.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Starlight Networks, for example, offers StarCast, a streaming-media product that provides live and on-demand video and slide presentations within a standard web browser.

James Long, Starlight's chairman and co-founder, said potential StarCast applications include company announcements, corporate presentations and training seminars. "It really opens the world to traders," Long said.

"A trader can get video in a window on his desktop. He can correlate the information he's getting from the video feed to market information he's looking at concurrently," he added.

According to Long, brokerage giant Salomon Smith Barney was the first major financial-services company to embrace StarCast. The company deployed the technology on its 11,000-user corporate network last fall.

"Smith Barney uses the technology to broadcast live analyst briefings to desktops at its New York headquarters and in 470 branches nationwide," he explained.

Small Firms Lead

A few major firms, such as Salomon Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch & Co., have already begun installing Intranets, primarily as a low-cost way of linking together globally-dispersed employees.

But smaller firms will likely lead the industry's move toward Intranets. "Small companies can move faster because they don't have as many desktops to convert," said Rob Enderle, a senior analyst at Giga Information Group, a technology research firm based in Santa Clara, Calif. "Also, small companies don't have the financial investment in big, iron desktops like the major firms, so it's easier for them to make the decision to move to the new technology."

While Intranet technology has been available for several years, system security worries have slowed the technology's arrival on the trading floor.

"People have the feeling that anything that connects into any part of the Internet is a security risk," Tabb said. But firewalls, hardware and software combinations that prevent unauthorized data streams from entering an Intranet have become sophisticated enough to thwart the skills of even the most skilled hackers, he noted. "Intranets are really quite safe," Tabb added.

But it will still be a few years before the industry begins to widely embrace Intranets. Most firms are taking a wait-and-see approach, Tabb said. "Intranet distribution is still quite new, and most trading-floor managers are waiting to see how the technology evolves," he added. "No one wants to be among the first on the bandwagon."

Will Blunders Ever Cease In Wall Street Trading? Technology Helps, But the Devil Is in the Wrong

It was 3:50 p.m. EST on Wednesday, and the market was stable. The New York Stock Exchange was set to close in ten minutes. A trader posted a trade of 1,100 shares of United Technologies at 11 3/4. The problem was that the previous trade had been printed at 111 7/8. The trader posting the 1,100-share print had left a digit off his quote.

The erroneous trade caused a five-percent tailspin in the Dow Jones Industrial Average minutes before the closing bell. The error turned a 40-point rise in the Dow into a disastrous 257-point drop.

Sound far-fetched? It shouldn't. Trading errors happen all the time.

The lost digit that Wednesday – July 31, 1996 – created a panic on the floor and nearly set off the NYSE circuit breaker for the first time. But six minutes after it appeared on the tape, Big Board officials had unraveled the error and printed a correction, posting the trade at 111 3/4. The Dow was recalculated, and closed with a 47-point gain.

In the impassioned and imperfect world of Wall Street trading, erroneous trades are an accepted reality. Most traders attribute slipups to miscommunication or human error. But as desks rely more on electronic systems to route and execute orders, trading errors have been reduced dramatically.

"Ten years ago, I would say my desk averaged 15 errors a week," said Paul Chalmers, director of international trading at Canaccord Capital in Vancouver. "Today, traders are more careful, and systems handle orders with less human intervention. My desk is down to maybe two errors a week."

Handling Errors

Dozens of situations can lead to an erroneous trade. Stock symbols assigned incorrectly. Selling shares for a buy order. Assuming order information. Moving too many – or too few – shares.

Generally, trading veterans outgrow youthful recklessness and take care to handle orders more efficiently. Learning from past mistakes is part of that maturing. Richard Holway, director of equity trading at Investment Advisers in Minneapolis, still remembers every detail of his first error. He has handled every order since with greater caution.

"A portfolio manager asked me to buy 12,100 shares of ADP, Automatic Data Processing," Holway recalled. "Even though its referred to as ADP, its stock symbol is AUD. I entered the order as ADP, and wound up buying shares of Allied Products."

After that mistake, Holway began echoing the corporate name and stock symbol to the portfolio manager sending him an order.

When an error has been made and the order executed – like in Holway's mistake – the execution will stand. The desk making the error will take the position as a holding of its own, and will fill the customer order as originally intended. The inadvertent order is never the responsibility of the customer.

Because most desks will absorb a trading error as a holding of its own, many firms establish an account to handle positions obtained through errors.

But not all mistakes turn out to be disasters. Tom Norby, head trader at Black & Co. in Portland, relayed the story of a sloppy trade turning a profit.

"A position trader at a firm we deal with was forced into a print of a stock he didn't own," Norby said. The trader, in effect, sold stock to a customer to fill an order without owning shares of that stock. Normally, a trader who has shorted a stock buys the necessary shares later in the day, hoping to fill the order at a price slightly lower than the current quote. But the position trader was unable to fill the order before the close of the trading session.

Ending the day short can be disastrous. If news about a stock breaks before the market opens the next day, that stock's price could climb, and a trading desk could be forced to pay a higher price to obtain shares. Committed to selling the shares at the lower price of the previous day, the desk would incur a loss.

But this position trader – short 500,000 shares – was lucky. News before the opening negatively impacted the price of the stock, driving it down. "The desk was able to buy the shares to fill the order at a much cheaper price than it had sold the shares," Norby said. "The sloppy trade allowed the desk to turn a profit."

Norby and Chalmers – like all sell-side traders – are dependent upon order flow, so they stressed a willingness to absorb mistakes for clients.

"We'll bend over backwards to try to smooth out an error," Chalmers said. "We look at it as if the client is always right, and we work to get that position cleared."

Although usually willing to take a position with an erroneous trade, Chalmers said his desk will investigate the order trail to determine how the error was made.

"Our trading lines are recorded, so we can check who made the mistake," Chalmers said. "Even if the mistake is not ours, we will usually take the hit, but we want the client to know who made the error."

A few months ago, Chalmers telephoned a client's chief executive to say that one of the client's traders had made five errors with Canaccord in six weeks. Covering all five mistakes for the client, the errors were a significant burden to Canaccord's account. The chief executive apologized, and agreed to increase his order flow to Chalmers as restitution.

"The majority of the time, people try to help each other out to clear an error," Chalmers said.

But erroneous trades are not always worked out amicably. If both sides of a trade are positioned in the market as adversaries – like a market maker and a day trader – the desk making the error will often wind up with the position.

Exchange Policies

When an error between two individuals cannot be worked out amicably, exchanges offer alternatives for settlement.

At the NYSE, a trader or floor broker with an unresolvable error can either file for an arbitration proceeding or agree to a judgment from NYSE floor officials.

A judgment by floor officials is the more widespread of the two formal alternatives, and an NYSE source cited the immediate, impartial rulings as the reason for its popularity. When an error must be cleared, floor officials – member floor brokers and specialists – promptly convene with the two parties on the floor and offer a ruling, understood to be final by the two disputants.

Somewhat less popular, but decidedly more official, arbitration proceedings can take months to offer a decision and clear an error. The arbitration decision – handed down by an independent NYSE panel – are also considered final. An arbitration decision can only be appealed on extremely narrow grounds.

The National Association of Securities Dealers also holds hearings for members before an independent arbitration panel. When an error cannot be worked out between two parties, a source at the NASD said that arbitration is the means by which the error can be cleared and capital reallocated.

The NYSE and the NASD offer arbitration proceedings to members for all transaction errors, irrespective of where the trade was executed.

A complaint can be filed with the NASD to alert the agency of a problem with a member firm. But an NASD source stressed that filing a complaint will not settle a trade dispute. Rather, a complaint will alert the agency of an ongoing problem, resulting in an investigation by the NASD's regulatory subsidiary, NASD Regulation. Last year, 5,000 complaints were investigated.

When an error results from a processing mistake – like the missed digit in the United Technologies trade – the NYSE's floor-operations staff will team with floor officials to investigate the reporting mistake. The mistake is corrected and filed with NYSE market surveillance.

On Nasdaq, features of the electronic systems have significantly limited processing errors. With a computerized order trail, erroneous trades can be tracked and corrected quickly.

Electronic Safeguards

Across all markets, the widespread use of electronic trading systems has markedly reduced the occurrence of processing errors on desks. Industry vendors market products designed to reject erroneous trade data entered on workstations. Most programs provide pop-up screens, enabling traders to quickly review data before an order is transmitted for execution.

TradeRoute, a routing system for small institutional-sized equity orders sold by Boston-based AutEx, touts its ability to protect traders from processing errors. (AutEx is a unit of Thomson Financial Services, parent of Securities Data Publishing, publisher of Traders Magazine.)

"We promote the fact that our system eliminates mistakes," said John Spensieri, TradeRoute's business manager. "TradeRoute prevents errors by eliminating exposure where errors occur."

Spensieri cited front-end safeguards that will cancel any order entered with an invalid symbol or trade size. After a valid order is entered, the system requires the sender to review trade information and approve the routing of the order.

Most TradeRoute orders are executed within minutes, so traders are alerted to erroneous trades almost immediately.

"It is so important to catch an error quickly," Holway said. "The worst errors are the ones you don't catch right away. The ticking time bombs."

On Nasdaq, the Automated Confirmation Transaction system (ACT) sets time limits for reporting trade details, helping to keep erroneous data from festering.

ACT is the automated Nasdaq service that receives and matches trades for transmission to the National Securities Clearing Corp. prior to settlement at the Depository Trust Company. In addition, ACT disseminates last-sale information, and sends same-day confirmations and reconciliations to traders. Participation by NASD member firms is mandatory.

Market makers are required to enter trade details on all transactions within 90 seconds of execution. Order-entry firms have 20 minutes to report details of orders executed by market makers. Under certain circumstances, firms must decline and cancel trades entered in ACT.

Clearing firms that execute and process trades for smaller broker dealers have an electronic link to ACT, which helps monitor their correspondents' trading activity and market exposure. ACT will automatically flag the clearing broker whenever a correspondent has exceeded the clearing firm's credit parameters.

A trade is locked when both parties enter identical details. A locked trade is then routed directly for settlement. A trade executed on SOES, for example, is immediately locked.

But no system will eliminate every human error. "You can never get around inputting wrong information," said John Davidge, sales manager of New York-based Davidge Data Systems, operator of DAVNET, an order-routing system. "Systems don't make mistakes, people do."

Indeed. On March 26, 1992, two clerks at the former Salomon Brothers began routinely entering computerized sell orders in some of the NYSE's biggest stocks two minutes before the market close. But the clerks had misinterpreted the order to sell $11 million of stocks as 11 million shares.

The sudden wave of sell orders drove stock prices lower as traders on the floor scrambled to find matching buyers. The Dow, which at 3:58 p.m. EST had been up nearly 13 points, finished down 1.57 points. At the time, Big Board sources said the entire loss in the closing minutes was attributable to the Salomon trades.

Because the orders were executed validly – prices and symbol information were correct – the trades could not be canceled. Salomon was handcuffed to the inadvertant position, which was estimated to have cost the firm $500 million.

At Deadline – NODES

The deadline for comment on Nasdaq's proposed order delivery and execution system, or NODES, is extended to May 8. (The system, until recently, was popularly referred to as Next Nasdaq). Some experts say parts of NODES will upset some and satisfy others in the trading community.

NODES's limit order display book "logically satisfies the rule for making it a display electronic communications network (ECN)," one expert said. "SelectNet does not qualify as a display ECN because Nasdaq does not have the technology."

Opinion is divided on a proposal that would prevent order- entry firms and individual traders withdrawing limit orders during the 10 seconds that elapse after an order is entered. But you probably guessed. This rule is designed to prevent gaming, or empheral quoting, by day trading firms. That upsets them. But many market makers think the proposal is a step in the right direction.

At Deadline – Custody

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. is reportedly negotiating the sale of its custody and clearing business with Chase Manhattan Corp. The price tag is said to be more than $600 million. If the deal succeeds, Chase will acquire Morgan's $400 billion worth of institutional assets under custody, as well as a roster of correspondent firms.

The deal comes in the wake of Morgan's own acquisition of Dean Witter Discover & Co. and the absorption of Dean's securities, asset management and credit card services businesses which Morgan wants to grow. Prior to the merger, custody and clearing were plum business lines at Morgan though the firm in recent years had shed some clearing accounts.

About three years ago, Morgan dropped about 15 correspondents that did not meet certain profit parameters, leaving the firm with 60 accounts. Some staff were handed pink slips. Morgan's latest move in the clearing business comes at a time when regulators are more closely watching other firms that clear and execute trades for correspondents, or introducing brokers.

At Deadline – Reuters Survey

The 1998 Reuters Survey of mid to smaller companies ranks major professionals, funds managers and securities firms on Wall Street. More than 1,500 sell-side analysts, 1,100 publicly-listed companies and 100 fund managers responded. The survey is published by Tempest Consultants.

At an awards ceremony on April 2 at the Waldorf-Astoria, the following were ranked by listed companies at the top, in the categories noted in parenthesis: Paul Haagensen, Putnam Investments (individual fund manager); Fidelity Investments (fund management group); Merrill Lynch & Co. (broker research); Merrill Lynch & Co. (investment bank).

The following were listed at the top by fund managers, in the categories noted in parenthesis: Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. (broker research); Goldman Sachs & Co. (broker sales); Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (broker products and services).

Reuters itself might easily win an award for colorful writing. "Likening the industry to a juicy doughnut, the squeeze is on," Reuters noted. "So tough is the squeeze that eight out of the top 20 ranked securities houses have changed ownership in the last year."

At Dedline – Transaction Audits

Measuring trade execution quality is not new. But an upstart company based in Northpost, N.Y., is pulling out the stops to nab business, measuring trade execution quality for orders of 5,000 shares and more.

The Transaction Auditing Group (TAG) started the service last month, offering to measure the trade execution price against the midpoint between the bid and asked price. This measure, commonly referred to as liquidity premium, is a topic of popular discussion in academia.

"Liquidity premium is a very intuitive measure of trade execution," said Charles M.C. Lee, an accountant and finance professor at Cornell University. "This measure provides another dimension by which to analyze and measure trade execution quality."

TAG's audits evaluate trade execution against a number of measures, including price improvement, order fill, liquidity and timeliness. TAG has established an industry advisory board dedicated to fostering a dialogue on issues that affect best execution.

Levitt Targets Trade Count for Elimination: Move by SEC Chairman Could Bring Relief to Traders Hi

Arthur Levitt has suggested he will propose eliminating multiple counting on each Nasdaq trade, to dramatically reduce the transaction fees paid by market makers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission chairman raised the issue at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, and said afterwards he will meet Nasdaq officials to discuss how trades are counted.

Levitt's action is controversial. The double and triple counting of each Nasdaq trade has long been cited as giving an inflated account of Nasdaq volume. Unlike trading on the New York Stock Exchange, a huge proportion of Nasdaq trading is principal business, requiring the passage of each trade among two or more trading desks.

Nasdaq, however, made no apologies before now, in part because its reported volume gives it marketing heft, experts say. But the intervention of Levitt, as well as market makers' frustration over a congressional decision to introduce 31(a) transaction fees on Nasdaq, may give Nasdaq second thoughts.

Fund U.S. Treasury

The transaction fees are now charged at a rate of 1/300th of one percent of the value of each Nasdaq sale, and are used to fund the U.S. Treasury, and ultimately to finance the SEC. Market makers complain they are paying an unfair proportion of the fees compared to traders at the Big Board.

Levitt's suggestion could bring them relief.

"There is some question whether Nasdaq double counts fees, which they do, and I think shortly we'll see some adjustment that will reduce the fees," Levitt told the Senate.

Whether Nasdaq would countenance a cut of up to 50 percent in its reported daily volume and the loss of prestige that would likely bring is not clear. But supporting the change could hasten the end of Nasdaq traders' efforts on Capitol Hill to get relief on 31(a) fees, market insiders say.

Publicly, Nasdaq says the current system might be best left untouched. A spokesman for Nasdaq noted that the current structure was approved by the SEC and does what other exchanges do: When capital is risked, volume is counted once.

The current structure "provides investors with maximum transparency, and less reporting may not be in the best interests of investors," NASD spokesman Reid Walker told a reporter.

Privately, however, some Nasdaq brass, caught offguard by Levitt's proposal, may be looking for wriggle room. Indeed, Walker said that the NASD was "always open to discussing the matter [of trade counting] further with the SEC."

At press time, the Security Traders Association, and a coalition that includes the Securities Industry Association, the Chicago Stock Exchange and the Big Board, continued their fight for a relaxation in how 31(a) fees are levied.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that has jurisdiction over the SEC's budget, said there is a proposal to reduce 31(a) fees on both listed and Nasdaq trades by $400 million over five years. But he cautioned that "if eliminated, we still need to find additional funds for the SEC and the other people in government who will pick up the fees."

A congressional source said an overall reduction of 30 percent to 50 percent is sought in the estimated fees to be collected.

"It has to be in a range of comfort for the SEC," said David Franasiak, an attorney representing the STA, in an interview earlier this year after an annual STA-sponsored legislative conference in Washington.

"Budget scoring will ultimately hang on the specific language of a final proposal," a congressional budget aide added.

Banking Committee

Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), chairman of the securities subcommittee of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, supports a reduction in the amounts levied.

"We are in preliminary discussions with the various committees and the SEC over how and under what circumstances we can reduce the 31(a) fees," Gramm's spokesman Larry Neal said.

"The jurisdiction is so diverse," Neal added. "Eight committees in the House and Senate would have to reach agreement. Talks are proceeding one by one to see if an accommodation can be reached. Plainly, we are some distance from producing legislation, but there is initial movement in that direction."

Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, expressed his own concern about 31(a) fees in a letter dated March 3 to Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), the chairman and the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, respectively.

The coalition has targeted principal trading for a reduction in 31(a) fees, including riskless principal trades, or trades in which a broker dealer buys shares of stock that he does not trade (earning a commission by simultaneously selling the stock to a market maker).

Cooked the Books'

What particularly upsets market makers is the amount of money that 31(a) fees are generating. One Nasdaq trader griped that the SEC "cooked the books" when it sent revenue estimates to the Office of Management and Budget prior to congressional approval of the fees in 1996.

"The [excess budget amount over the cost of running the SEC] will be so huge it will be an embarrassment," Franasiak said.

Federal Expert

Traders have estimated an excess budget of $300 million. But according to a federal budget expert, who requested anonymity, the annual excess coming into government coffers from transaction, registration and other sources "is not even $100 million relative to total expenditures."

The budget expert estimates that 1999 fiscal-year administration budget includes $180 million from Nasdaq transaction fees. "This is somewhat more than expected," the expert said.

According to a government source, the money collected is designed in part to protect the SEC from engaging in bruising battles with Congress for operating funds.

At the STA Foundation earlier this year, Franasiak said a reduction in the amount levied in 31(a) fees could be achieved with legislative riders or an amendment to a fiscal year 1998 supplemental budget.

However, with Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp et. al the butt of cocktail banter on Capitol Hill these spring days, 31(a) fees hardly set the Beltway on fire. Eliminating 31(a), Franasiak said, "is not unlike going for the Super Bowl in the first year of a franchise's existence. It is an extremely, extremely difficult task."

Separately, the SIA has proposed that the National Association of Securities Dealers make other changes in how 31(a) fees are collected because the current arrangement has resulted in clearing firms and electronic communications networks being charged for transactions initiated by their own customers.

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