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 Nasdaq falls as confused Floridians sell everything
 Neil the Donkey
 November 9, 2000
 Donkeybusiness.com

 The Nasdaq fell 5% on Wednesday as Florida residents operating through an online brokerage with a confusing user
 interface mistakenly sold all of their assets and initiated large short positions.

 As election officials in Florida proceeded with a recount of the votes in the very tight presidential race and Democrats
 protested poorly designed ballots given to Palm Beach County residents, Floridians using an online brokerage called
 O-Trade unwittingly sold millions of shares in stocks like Cisco, Broadcom, and Extreme Networks.

 "I was just trying to get real-time quotes on PMC-Sierra this morning," said Florida retiree James Durbin. "but when I
 clicked on the menu item for quotes, it sold all my shares. So I tried to see what price I’d sold them at by clicking again. But
 then I was short the stock! I did it five more times before I decided it was a bad idea to do it anymore. I guess I’m not too
 unhappy, because my portfolio is up 13% on the day."

 PMC-Sierra closed down 19 3/16, or 15%, at 108 11/16.

 Other Florida residents described similar experiences. "I was going to buy 70 shares of Broadcom to take advantage of
 yesterday’s dip, but I ended up hitting the quote button eight times and shorting 560 shares," said retired plumber Alfred
 Jackson. "You know, I tried to vote Gore in this last election, but I think I ended up voting for Buchanan because of that
 weird ballot with the holes between the two pages. If they give me another chance, though, I think I’ve become rich enough
 to go Republican and vote for Bush."

 Broadcom closed down nearly 25, or 14%, at 151 13/16.

 Officials at O-Trade insisted that nothing was wrong with their user interface. "We’re confident that everyone knows how
 they’re trading," said O-Trade Customer Service Director Jennifer Matthews. "The fact that thousands of investors who
 had never shorted stock before suddenly threw their entire portfolios into short positions doesn’t necessarily mean that
 there’s anything wrong with our interface."

 However, it appears that O-Trade’s business is thriving despite the concerns with its interface. "After what’s happened to
 my portfolio over the last two months, I think I want a brokerage that’ll get me short even when I don’t want to short
 anything," said current Datek customer Kevin Watson. "I wouldn’t mind if it also bought a whole bunch of Dow stocks that I
 didn’t want to buy, too.