Nasdaq says it's ready for the year 2000

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NEW YORK (AP) - The Nasdaq Stock Market said Sunday it has successfully completed a series of tests designed to make sure there will be no problems when the year 2000 arrives.

``After extensive and rigorous testing, we have every reason to be extremely confident that there will be no serious disruptions in our services, and that investors will be protected,'' said Gregor Ballor, the executive vice president and chief information officer of the National Association of Securities Dealers, the parent company of Nasdaq.

Some computers software interprets years in a two-digit format, such as ``99'' for 1999. The concern is that unless software is modified, computers in various industries will malfunction when the calendar changes from ``99'' to ``00,'' which may be interpreted as 1900 instead of 2000.

The stock market conducted a series of live tests over four weekends in March and April, running more than 170,000 simulated transactions for nine securities products for the period Dec. 29-31, 1999, and Jan. 3, 2000. Making sure applications were Year 2000 compliant cost about $55 million.

Both NASD and the stock market said they would continue to monitor internal systems as the millennium nears.

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Be careful not to get buried in ALL of the details!

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), April 11, 1999