[Fair use for education and research purpose only]

April 5, 2000

Title: E-trading Firms Avoid Glitches On One of Busiest Days

By WILLIAM SHERMAN Daily News Staff Writer

Whipsawed investors pushed cyberspace stock trading to one of its busiest days ever yesterday, but the major E-trading firms reported no Web site blackouts. "Access time to our site might have been slower, but it was fully operational with no problems," said Greg Gabel, a spokesman for online trading leader Charles Schwab.

Gabel said that, at one point, more than 95,000 of the firm's customers were logged in simultaneously, "an all time record by far."

During March, Schwab had an average of 320,000 daily trades, more than double the previous March, the company said.

On a day with record trading volume for both the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq  nearly 4.5 billion shares changed hands  Datek Online, with 425,000 active accounts, reported smooth running, with all customers able to log on, execute and access their stock quote service, the company said.

Datek spokesman Brian Dorff said that trading volume was 30% higher than average at 43.5 million shares as of 4 p.m., with more to come with after-hours transactions.

The firm has 150 phone reps and 40 e-mail reps working during the extended trading day to field inquiries and fill orders "working non-stop, and I mean, non-stop," Dorff said.

DLJdirect also reported a big increase over its typical day of 30,500 trades.

A spokeswoman for the E-firm, a spinoff of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, Linda Finnerty said investors who telephoned rather than trade online had to wait an average of nine minutes before their calls were answered. The company reported no online difficulties.

Original Publication Date: 04/05/2000

http://www.nydailynews.com/2000-04-05/News_and_Views/Media_and_Business/a-62326.asp

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), April 05, 2000