Stockprowler.com | 2/14/00

Stockprowler.com is very concerned with the way the brokers and market makers handled trading in last week's pick, MOOR. Market makers have a responsibility for maintaining liquid markets in stocks… they set the price of stocks where they feel comfortable selling shares short and where they believe they can make a fair profit. What happened on Monday appears to be a blatant example of market manipulation by the market makers… and a total disregard for anything resembling fair play. The market makers opened the stock where it closed on Friday at 75 cents. Apparently, a short time later, the market makers began quickly walking the stock up in price. Judging by the e-mail we have received from readers, market makers held large numbers of market buy orders without executing them for as long as 35-40 minutes… and then finally executed them at prices as high as $2.75. We have heard many horror stories from our readers… here is just one example:

Hello, I really love your web site. Not only because you pick winners but also because I think you care about the little people like me who don't have a lot of money to lose.

Well today, I decided to buy MOOR. At the time it was .75 and I put a market order in with E-trade because market orders usually are executed faster. Well, E-trade didn't buy the stock for me for over a half hour and when they did, it was 2.75, then dropped pretty fast to 1.10. I only had $800 to trade and bought 1000 shares. I don't have margin with them but they bought it at that price anyway. Now they say I owe them money. So I put a limit sell in for $2 thinking at least I would only lose $750. Even though the stock went back up to over $2, they never sold the stock for me. Now I'm stuck. I know there isn't anything you can do about this. This is something that I just have to deal with but I wish there was some way that other people could be warned at the total inadequacies of E-trade. I have Datek and love them. Unfortunately they don't deal with OTCs. But I am not going to trade with E-trade ever again and am closing my account out with them. I just hope they finally sell the stock before I lose too much money. Thank you for your time.

(Name withheld)

Stockprowler.com urges anyone who believes they were defrauded by their brokerage firm and/or the market makers to file complaints with both NASD and the SEC. We believe the brokers share some of the culpability in this matter because they receive a commission from their clients, and therefore, have a responsibility to see to it that their clients receive fair executions. Complaints can be filed at the following linked sites:

In the future, regardless of any action taken against the market makers and brokerage firms involved, one should always be careful to use limit orders when buying or selling stocks on the OTC Bulletin Board. Stockprowler hopes that what happened on Monday proves to be the exception rather than the rule… for if it becomes the rule it will lead to a lack of confidence in, and eventual collapse of, the market maker system.

Check out our Stockprowler Scoreboard… 10 previous picks hit new highs this past week... And yes, for those who have inquired… we do have a crystal ball.

This week's pick is once again from the land of the Bulletin Board stocks. However, like last week, we are giving those readers that don't trade the Bulletin Board stocks a chance for some action this week with an interesting Nasdaq stock… RSPN. We would also like to issue a watch on a couple of stocks… FONX and VPTI. The voice recognition technology sector is hot… witness the meteoric rise of IVOC.

And now the Stockprowler.com pick of the week…

MigraTEC, Inc. (MIGR:OTC:BB)

Corporate Web site: http://www.migratec.com
Estimated Shares Outstanding: 60 million
Estimated Public Float: 21 million
Estimated Market Capitalization: $121 million
Closing Price Friday: $2.03

MIGR (OTC:BB) - It is the opinion of Stockprowler.com that Dallas based MigraTEC, Inc. has the potential to explode as SBAS did a few months ago. As readers may recall, Stockprowler picked Starbase Corp. at 1 9/32… SBAS closed Friday at 14 3/4. MigraTEC, Inc. is a cutting edge software tool developer and marketer offering what we believe is the premiere automated upgrade of software code from 32 bit to 64 bit, UNIX to LINUX, UNIX to UNIX, and UNIX to NT. MIGR's technology has the capability of automating the migration of code up to 20 times faster than conventional methods. Windows 2000 is expected to be released this week… it is reputed to be "more manageable and scalable" and "solid" than Windows 98. The huge beneficiary as a result will likely be MIGR. It is estimated that there are over 15,000 independent software vendors who market software programs designed to run on the "Wintel" platform who will need to address the upgrading of their software programs from 32 bit to 64 bit in conjunction with the release of Microsoft's Windows 2000.

Stockprowler has heard rumors of a MIGR deal with a major player… likely soon. Also, did we mention LINUX earlier… stay tuned. MIGR closed Friday at $2.03 on 5 million shares traded.

Good trading… Stockprowler