PACIFIC EXCHANGE CLOSE BURIED IN UNFILLED ORDERS
The Pacific Stock Exchange closed
half an hour early under a pile of unfilled orders on heavy,
but not record, volume of over 11 mln shares, Exchange
officials said.
    As traders remained on the floors in San Francisco and Los
Angeles, madly trying to balance their accounts long after the
close, Exchange Chairman Maurice Menn told a news conference
trading will, nevertheless, begin on time tomorrow,
at 0630 Pacific Daylight Time.
    Menn told reporters the price of a seat on the exchange
dropped to 86,000 dlrs today from 100,100 dlrs a week ago.
    Menn said the day also saw 134,000 options contracts
traded, compared to a record 202,000 contracts last friday.
    Traders both in Los Angeles and San Francisco said volume
was curbed purely by their inability to fill orders and the
chaos created by the exchange tape falling hours behind, making
it nearly impossible to get accurate price readings.
    "If we would have been able to execute the orders we got,
there would have been 20 mln shares traded," said Richard
Goforth, a partner with Crowell Weedon and Co, who trades on
the Los Angles floor of the Pacific Exchange.
    Traders in San Francisco said there were unconfirmed
reports that one brokerage house alone turned away orders for
50,000 shares they were unable to fill in late trading.
    The traders and exchange officials said action on the
Pacific Exchange did not deviate from that in New York, with
some early buying giving way to panic selling through the
close, which left the Dow Jones Industrial Average down a
record 508 points.
    "We pretty much mirrored what was going on in New York...
they couldn't fill their orders and we knew we couldn't fill
them either," said Goforth.
    While traders said they are bracing themselves for a lower
opening tomorrow, Mann attributed today's dive to panicking
young traders and to monetary policy and said the market should
still recover.
    "It depends on what the politicians do...There's no reason
it cannot go back. This is an abnormality and there is no
justification for this. People are nervous," he said.
    Mann noted he had never seen traders in San Francisco leave
on the floor so long after the close.
    In Los Angeles, one office manager commented early in the
day it was unusual to see traders on their feet.
    "Usually, they're sitting down studying the market, but its
moving so fast they don't have a chance," he said.
    In San Francisco, about 50 people on the sidewalk outside
the jammed lobby of Charles Schwab and Co, strained to see the
discount brokerage house's large ticker display.
    "I can't believe it," mumbled one onlooker.
 Reuter
