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 The Chronicle welcomes you online! Please feel free to respond to these editorials or letters to the editor by sending your letters to the editor.

We condense letters; most, as published, won't exceed 300 words. A letter must include the writer's name and city, which will be published, and an address and telephone number for verification, which will not be published. Writers may be limited to one letter every 30 days. Open letters, letters to third parties and poetry are not considered. Letters from people living outside the Chronicle's circulation area usually are not considered.

The evils of day trading

Web posted September 12, 1999

Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff

It is good news to see there will be a Sept. 16 U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs subcommittee hearing on day trading, a ruinous practice that more Americans became aware of after a frustrated, debt-ridden day trader named Mark O. Barton murdered nine people at two Atlanta trading firms.

Just after Barton's August rampage -- he also killed his wife and two children -- the North American Securities Administrators Association issued an extensive report which, among other things, criticized stock brokers for failing to adequately warn their customers of the high risks.

The seven-month study said most day traders face tough odds anyway, because they are likely to sell too soon when their stocks rise, and sell too late when they fall. (It has been reported that Barton lost over $400,000 during a brief day trading spree.)

The hearing focuses on a practice that simply, in the words of former President George Bush, ``wouldn't be prudent.'' The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission and a representative of the North American Securities Administrators Association, among other witnesses, will no doubt drive home that point.