Island ECN to Extend Its Trading Day;
                   Investment Dealers to Take Primex Stake

                   By GREG IP
                   Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

                   The trading day continues to expand, with the second-largest
                   electronic-trading system planning to let investors buy and sell stocks as
                   late as 8 p.m. Eastern time starting Wednesday.

                   Matt Andresen, president of Island ECN Inc., a unit of Datek Online
                   Holdings Corp., said Island's trading day will be extended from its current
                   5:15 p.m. close.

                   Separately, two of the country's largest investment dealers are to announce
                   Tuesday they are taking stakes in Primex Trading NA LLC, an
                   electronic-trading system that aims to replicate over the Internet the New
                   York Stock Exchange's floor-trading "auction" market.

                   Taken together, the developments underline
                   the growing encroachment of new electronic
                   systems on the territory of the New York
                   Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market.

                   Island is an electronic-communications network that automatically matches
                   buyers and sellers, primarily of Nasdaq stocks. Its move continues this
                   year's piecemeal extension of trading hours. Both the Big Board and
                   Nasdaq intend to extend hours, but to ensure all their members and related
                   systems are prepared, won't do it until next year.

                   By contrast, Island is the second trading system to offer trading as late as 8
                   p.m. MarketXT Inc., in New York, initiated a 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern
                   time Monday-to-Thursday trading session with 200 stocks three weeks
                   ago. Business has been modest, with only a few of the 200 stocks it trades
                   topping 1,000 shares a night.

                   Island's subscribing brokerage firms will decide whether to give their
                   customers access to Island after hours, Mr. Andresen said. "If there's no
                   interest, there's no interest. But given our subscriber demand, they want a
                   longer format."

                   Island's move was made easier by the Nasdaq Stock Market's plans to
                   keep its order routing, quote display and trade reporting systems open until
                   6:30 p.m. starting Oct. 1.

                   Mr. Andresen said Island will report trades through Nasdaq until 6:30
                   p.m., but can clear trades for regular three-day settlement by sending them
                   directly to National Securities Clearing Corp. until 8 p.m.

                   The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq close at 4 p.m. Eastern time.
                   Island and some other ECNs have offered trading as late as 5:15 p.m. for
                   at least a year. In August, Island's parent, Datek Online Holdings, began
                   offering its customers access to Island until 5:15 p.m. and Mr. Andresen
                   said volume in Thursday's after-hours session was 1.1 million shares.

                   Rob Bethge, chief marketing officer of Datek, Iselin, N.J., said his
                   company will look at offering the additional extended session to its
                   customers "within the next week and a half."

                   Separately, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. and Citigroup Inc.'s
                   Salomon Smith Barney unit are to announce Tuesday that they are
                   investing in Primex, a trading system that hopes to enable any participant in
                   the country to bid for a customer's order, enabling that customer to get a
                   better price than originally available.

                   That bidding, or auction, process is the heart of the Big Board, but only
                   brokers on the exchange floor can participate.

                   "We are happy with the auction market on the New York Stock
                   Exchange, and that's exactly why we are hoping to be able to extend that
                   type of market into the electronic world," said William Harts, managing
                   director of equity trading at Salomon Smith Barney.

                   Other investors include Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co.,
                   and the system's developer, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities.
                   Peter Madoff, senior managing director at Madoff, said Primex should be
                   ready to operate by the summer of next year, when the markets move from
                   fractional to decimal pricing.

                   Primex would work like this. Suppose the best bid (the highest price a
                   seller can expect) in the country is $20, and the best offer (the lowest price
                   a buyer can expect) is $20.05. An order to sell 100 shares at the $20 bid
                   could be entered in Primex, and a participating broker or its customers
                   could offer to pay $20.01 or $20.02 to the seller.

                   That ability to "price improve" orders sets Primex apart from Island and
                   other ECNs such as Reuters Group PLC's Instinet Corp. Despite big
                   investors, Primex faces the same obstacle other stock-trading systems do:
                   building "liquidity," enough participants to ensure a buyer stands a good
                   chance of meeting a seller, and vice versa. So far, no system has come
                   close to challenging the Big Board's liquidity.

                   Primex is looking for a home on a stock exchange and its backers have
                   approached the Big Board, with no results thus far.