Subj : Market Action To : All From : Paul Rogers Date : Wed Nov 05 2003 03:48 pm

Today it would have been interesting to be plugged into the news that
crossed the desks on the Street.  The market rose about 5pts right after
the open.  Then it turned on its heel and dropped almost 10pts just as
fast.  For most of the rest of the day it struggled to make some of it
back.  Then just before the close it jumped up again, but didn't quite
get back to the starting line.

All but two of the NYSE directors have been asked to resign.  I suppose
reconstituting the Board might help a little, but I'm somewhat
skeptical.  What I'd like to see changed is its "specialist system".
The Exchange touts its "open outcry" system as a protector of the
investor, but who ever gets to do the outcry or hear it?  The Main
Street investor?  What they don't tell you is the floor specialists that
run trading in each stock have an inherent conflict of interests in
their market making.  They get to decide how a great deal how to run
their "book", how orders are filled, hence what prices stocks trade at.
Sure they have "protective" rules, but whom do they protect?  Main
Street or Wall Street?  The Exchange is the one that makes most of the
rules, with some SEC oversight.  The specialists also hold "inventory"
in the stock "so they can make a market in it if orders become
unbalanced."  If pressed, I'm sure the Exchange will say that "of course
they're allowed to make a profit from their buying and selling from
inventory, if they don't have enough liquidity then they can't make the
market flow."

It's simply an entrenched anachronism.  Computers could handle the
trading and order resolution fairer and more efficiently.  It works on
the NASDAQ.

Price     Vola-     Momen-    Volume    Oscil-    Summ.
Change    tility    tum                 lator     Index
 -__+      -__+      -__+      -__+      -__+      -__+

 _>__      <___      __|_      __>_      _>__      ___<     10/30
 __>_      <___      __|_      __>_      __>_      ___<     10/31
 __>_      |___      __|_      _>__      __|_      ___<     11/03
 _|__      |___      __|_      _|__      __|_      ___|     11/04
 _|__      >___      __|_      _|__      __|_      ___|     11/05

Timing Signals:  I don't use or recommend timing signals, but they're
fun to watch.  If I did though, well, I might use something like this.
(Be warned!!  It tends to whipsaw around signal points!)

Last Signal: Buy        Date:  10/01/03 S&P:    1018
Winner or Loser:  tbd                   By:     tbd

See my market tracking charts for '01-'02 and my investment strategy
study at my website(s):
http://www.xprt.net/~pgrogers/Pers.html
http://www.angelfire.com/or/paulrogers/Pers.html
http://www.geocities.com/paulgrogers/Pers.html
.... ...and now back to my original lurk mode... ___ MultiMail/MS-DOS v0.35 --- * Origin: The Bare Bones BBS (1:105/360) .