To OTC Journal Members:
 

Where To Trade OTC BB Stocks

Whenever I go through my inbox, there are invariably a few questions from members wondering which brokerage firm is best for trading OTC Bulletin Board stocks.

There are only two key factors to look at in determining where to trade: 1. The cost per trade, and 2. The speed and quality of trade executions.

Here are several major AVOIDS:

• Never use a "full service" brokerage firm for an account you are managing yourself. Many of the major houses will try to dissuade you from trading in small issues. If you feel this high risk end of the market is for you, the full service brokerage firm will charge you too much money for a service you don't need. The broker might also be more concerned about his compliance department or saving your funds for his firm's ideas.
• Never pay a "per share" fee. This fee is absurd. There should be one price to execute a trade no matter what the size in your self managed account. The brokerage firm's overhead is exactly the same for a $100 trade or a $100,000 trade. Unless their policies have recently changed, I believe both Charles Schwab and TD Waterhouse charge a per share trade. I was horrified one time when I was charged a $600 commission on a $3,000 trade at Charles Schwab. I bought 20,000 shares of a $.15 stock, and they charged me a per share fee. The account was closed within one week. Unless they have changed their policies, Schwab and Waterhouse are to be avoided.

• WWW.AMERITRADE.COM: Ameritrade is the largest and probably lowest cost online brokerage firm. All online trades are $10.99, regardless of the size of the trade. According to their home page, if you open an account with them, you can trade for free for the first five weeks. You get free streaming, real time Level 1 quotes, which is all most people need. Level II (shows market makers bids and offers) is only $9.99 per month- well worth the cost if you are an active trader.
• WWW.MYTRACK.COM: MyTrack is slightly more costly than Ameritrade, but highly recommended for more active and sophisticated traders. Trades run $12.95 regardless of size, and they offer the first week of trades for free. For an extra $5.00 per month, they offer comprehensive real time stock tracking software. More importantly, their trading software is "direct access", even for bulletin board stocks. It allows you to route your trades specifically where you want them to go. This will give the active trader a competitive edge. This is not "web page driven", so you have to download software to use their system. Highly recommended for the more sophisticated and active trader. For our friends across the pond, they have a UK version on their site which give British investors direct access to US securities.

One last thought- as a general policy, you should always use a limit order when trading OTC Bulletin Board stocks, even if you want the market price. This market is more thinly traded than its larger brethren, and as such the market makers will try to take advantage of market orders to make extra beer money at your expense. A limit order helps prevent predatory market maker actions at your expense.
 

Network Installation (OTC BB: NWIS): Rapid Expansion Starting in 2004

In celebration of the Martin Luther King holiday, Network Installation was out today with news of another new wi-fi contract award. The nationwide wireless internet access infrastructure is expected to grow 10 fold over the next three years, and Network Installation is sitting in the cat bird seat for contracts in Southern California. The company already boasts LA and Orange County, most of the Southern California school districts, USC, UCLA, Cisco, IBM, Wells Fargo, Wal Mart, SBC, and many others amongst its existing customer base.

If the company is going to grow as fast as the market for its services, it will no doubt be expanding rapidly this year. In fact, they already are. Network Installation has begun to expand geographically.

On January 13th, Network Installation announced it had opened an office in fast growing construction happy Las Vegas. Consider the market for their services in Vegas. Most of the new construction over the last 10 years in Las Vegas has not been fitted with Wi-Fi systems. Las Vegas has been the fastest growing municipality in the US for many years now.

Here are some recent fundamental developments since my last edition on Network:

• Announced the opening of Las Vegas branch on January 13th. 
• Announced the award of another new contract from UCLA on January 14th.
• Announced the hiring of a new director of sales and marketing. Robert W. Barnett comes over from MicroLink, where he was responsible for $23 million in sales of wired and wireless networks, VOiP, (Voice over Internet Protocol), speech enabled telephony, hardware, software and service solutions. This was announced on January 15th.
• Announced (today) a new Wi-Fi installation contract with the La Habra City School District at Washington Middle School. This contract will link the school with La Habra City Police Department's network.

The stock continues to trade at about the $3.50 mark. In light of the 337% move off the August 2nd introduction level of $.80, an extended period of sideways action in the stock is normal.

Impatient investors would do well to remember Irvine Sensors (NASDAQ: IRSN), which traded between $1.30 and $1.70 for 11 months before running to $4.50 in two months.

Over the last five trading days, the data networking sector was up 11.29%, and the optical equipment sector was up 10.98%. Network Installation is involved in both of these sectors. 

I'm looking for much higher levels this year. Continue accumulating while the stocks remains quiet in anticipation of higher levels. 

Here is the complete text of today's news release for your review:
 

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