TOL reported significantly lower earnings today (barely meeting drastically reduced estimates) margins are contracting, estimates for 2007 are reduced - AGAIN - and yet these stocks continue to trade upward.

Bill, given one of the themes of this board is preservation of capital, anyone who is thinking of trading these stocks needs to be aware that they are completely dislocated from fundamentals. TOL is now looking at a forward P/E of over 20. And it will only go higher.

Incredible.

I was at the FIA (Futures and Options) show last week in Chicago. E*Trade was announcing the Trading Technologies (TT) platform launch built into there new E*Trade Pro Platform. TT is far and away the most popular trading platform in the professional F&O trading world. Bringing this level of trading functionality to the retail client universe will only increase the number of accounts opened at E*Trade.

Re: "anyone who is thinking of trading these stocks needs to be aware that they are completely dislocated from fundamentals"

Since your comment is not a question to Bill, here is one opinion...

STOCK MARKET VALUATION (P/E RATIOS)

"Accepted academic and financial industry
principles use the "Dividend Discount Model" to
value stocks and the market; the P/E ratio is
based upon the formula of 1 / (GR - EG); thus,
one divided by the difference between the 'Gross
Return' and the 'EPS Growth' rate."

http://tinyurl.com/yj5xr4
(bottom portion of chart)

Don't necessarily agree with it, but the linked data could be A factor influencing this current market plus the ever increasing reliance on computer-generated financial models rather than "human-inspired common sense" which don't necessarily do well in speculative markets anyway, JMHO,

Jpatrick: How does trading technologies' platform compare to Tradestation or Interactive Brokers?

The Trading Technologies platform was originally designed to mimic the action of the trading floor style of trading. Specifically the speed scalper, or local who makes markets on both the bid side and offer side, with no particular regard for direction other then the direction of the daily range. As the futures trading floors became more electronic, the locals (pit traders) left the open outcry world and attempted to trade the same strategy on a computer terminal. There were many hurdles to overcome; first the "Old Boys" network of laying up friends with winning trades was over, second the "tells" that pit traders looked for when watching various filling brokers was gone, and lastly the asymmetrical information advantage also vaporized.

TT enters the fray and launches an order entry ticket (that they have patents on) that looks like the "deck of paper orders" the pit clerks held in there hands back in the open outcry days. This resonated with the guys making the transition to screen trading and soon word was out that this is the best way to speed scalp on the computer. TT also has an intuitive spread trader designed for the US Treasury curve trader (buy 2yr notes and sell 10yr notes if you think the curve will flatten). In the futures world when you put a spread like this on both legs have to be duration weighted so there is a ratio of 2yr note to 10yr notes that are bought and sold (ex: buy 3 2yr notes and sell 1 10yr note). This isn't the current ratio and in fact it changes with the changes to cheapest-to-deliver so it's important for your software to accommodate these changes. The platform is best used by a single trader trading a few accounts.

Every bit of functionality has been designed and built for the speed scalper. There are some capabilities for the broker, but there are better systems to monitor multiple orders from multiple accounts. TT connects to around 7 futures exchanges. I don't know the exact number but you can check here: www.tradingtechnologies.com

Interactive Brokers is less a trading platform and more an order routing system. They do have a very primitive trading screen, but the value of IB is the amount of exchange connectivity they own. IB was ahead of the curve years ago in terms of electronic trading and global order routing. I can't think of an exchange they don't connect with. They are a Broker / Dealer as well so they can execute and clear your trade regardless of asset class. (TT is not a B/D.)

They are very cheap in terms of commissions and their network is probably the best in the industry that is available to the public.

Trading Screen started as a technical analysis system then morphed into an order entry system and lastly into a B/D. They are known for the regression testing of various "simple� strategies, and I know of one firm that uses the technology exclusively to back test and analyze customer's models to reverse engineer successful strategies and trade them for there own prop account. A conflict of interest if I ever saw one.

Each system was built for different types of traders, so the first thing you have to determine is what type of trader you are, then shop for a system.

Hope this helps.

jpatrick