The long term direction of the stockmarket is up and stock market owners are planning for it. Watch closely the tech stocks. This is the way of the future. Off Bloomberg - an article for your interest.

NASDAQ DOUBLES TRADING CAPACITY
"The Nasdaq stock market said MCI WorldCom finished installing a new trading system ahead of schedule, doubling the market's trading capacity to 4 billion shares a day. The new system will be able to handle the trades at double the speed of the previous system. Nasdaq said the system can be "Scaled up" to handle 8 billion shares, if necessary.

Average Nasdaq volume in 1999 was about 985 million shares a day, with the peak of 1.4 billion reached on April 14, Nasdaq said. The system boosts capacity at Nasdaq as it heads toward its first 2 billion share a day, expected some time next year. Message traffic delays had been eliminated as well, an MCI WorldCom official said. The system is now operating, having been installed over several months.

"The system has significant headroom", said Mr Richard Sabatini, the executive technical manager of MCI WorldCom Global Accounts. "Nasdaq now has all the ability to handle its expected increases in trading." Nasdaq expected its first 4 -billion- share a day in 2002, said Gregar Bailor, chief information officer at the Washington-based exchange. The system has been tested for 4 billion shares. Eight billion shares had been tested by extrapolating from the 4-billion-share tests, MCI WorldCom officials said. To get to 8 billion capacity, MCI WorldCom will have to install extra equipment over several months. Company and exchange officials said they would begin considering the installations when Nasdaq's daily trading average reached 2 billion.