I was watching CNBC today and was not paying too much attention until I heard one of the talking heads say that a move is afoot to have the NYSE Specialists go public with new IPO's. This will allow the Specalists to control a potentially volitable market since they will have more liquedity (money) as a result of the public offering. They said this could happen as early as September of this year.

This really got my attention as it is an unprecented step. For those of you who don't know, one of the roles of a specialist is to act as a principle as a buyer or seller of stocks to ensure an orderly market. Are they taking this step to ward off potential Y2K problems? Sure looks that way to me.

-- Watcher6 (anon@anon.com), July 23, 1999

Answers

Along the same lines, Goldman Sachs just went public too. A large, old private company going public isn't really too interesting.

What IS interesting, however, is that Goldman Sachs was once public before!

They went public in 1929!

When questioned by Congress later in 1934 (or thereabouts), the president of the again private Goldman Sachs remarked that they sold shares in excess of $100 per share. After the crash, they bought them back at less then $2 per share.

Curious, eh?

Jolly

-- Jollyprez (jolly@prez.com), July 23, 1999.

I got the impression that the NY Stock Exchange is like a private corporation and that the corporation is planning to sell stock and go public. Talk about timing. The sale date is probably close to when the insiders expect the market to peak. This is entirely different from letting the specialists market new issues. Another effort to suck in and rip off the little guy. Sell Sell Sell and beat the crowd.

-- Moe (Moe@3 stooges.gom), July 23, 1999.

UPS is going public too. There was an article in the Des Moines Register about it this week. The in-the-trenches workers were wondering at the timing. Sorry I can't remember more about the article.

-- Beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), July 23, 1999.

How much do you have to hear?

Get ready for it.

Father

-- Thomas G. Hale (hale.tg@att.net), July 23, 1999.

Jollyprez- I had read this about Goldman Sachs before, but didn't put the puzzle pieces together. Good observation.

-- Gia (laureltree7@hotmail.com), July 24, 1999.

The upcoming chapter of our economic lives is a very important one. Get yourselves prepared. A good book to read is "On the horns of the beast" by Bill Still. It is about the history of the Federal Reserve and it discusses all aspects of this control going back to the 1700's. It is currently out of print, but can be loaned out from libraries across the U.S. on an inter-library loan.

The signs are piling up in front of you. Are you reading them?

-- OR (orwelliator@biosys.net), July 25, 1999.

Please keep this thread/analysis going. I follow the market but am not market savey to follow all of this. The explanations/info given here helped alot. Especially the part abt Sach going public before. We are out of the market offically now/401k just last month. But this is very scarey. Wonder if the down mode will be on today when things open up.

-- Moore Dinty moore (not@thistime.com), July 26, 1999.

Here is what bothers me. If one of the roles of the specialists is to ensure an orderly markeet by acting as a pricipal by buying or selling stock, then they are not going to be doing this with thier own funds. They will go public and use the money gained to ensure an orderly market. If the market drops anyway, whose funds will be at risk? Certainly not them!

When the market crashed in 1987 the specialists stood aside. My guess it was because they did'nt want to risk losing thier money. This time around they may be able to stall off a crash, but again, maybe not.

I wish Paul Milne would weigh in on this issue as he has years of trading experience.

-- Watcher6 (anon@anon.com), July 26, 1999.