Investment Technology provides automated equity trading services and transaction research to institutional investors and brokers through its wholly owned subsidiary, ITG Inc. For the 3 months ended 3/31/01, revenues rose 21% to $91.7M. Net income rose 32% to $21.0M. Revenues benefitted from increased commissions from Client Site Products and the Electronic Trading Desk. Earnings also reflect a $1.9M gain on the sale of ITG Europe.

May 16, 2001

By lowering the costs of trading for institutions, ITG provides their clients with an edge in the highly competitive financial services industry. This is because the lower trading costs can be passed onto the clients in the form of lower management fees. ITG has also benefited from increased coverage by the brokerage community. Since the first of the year, three additional brokerage firms have picked up ITG. Just recently the stock was initiated with a "buy" rating from Bear Sterns. Turning to ITG's impressive chart, the stock has just successfully broken out of a symmetrical triangle formation. This is usually a bullish sign for a stock, and according to the width of the triangle, the next stop for our new play is $70. Traders might want to consider initiating new plays in ITG if the stock can settle back at least $1.00 on low volume of less than 100,000 shares by midday, with a subsequent bounce into the close. Otherwise, aggressive traders might want to see if ITG can conquer resistance at $55.00 on volume of at least 150,000 by midday before initiating new positions. We are setting our initial stop at $51.40 to protect on the downside.

Picked on May 16th @ $54.52
Change since picked +0.00
Stop Loss @ $51.40

May 17, 2001

Like the broader market, ITG eked out a small gain today, adding $0.08 to its share price. What’s more, it made this gain on 281,100 shares traded, 53,000 more than the three-month average daily volume of 228,000. ITG is another one of our Current Play stocks that looks like it might take a breather after this week’s strong run. In fact, ITG is now bumping up against resistance at $55.00, so it’s possible that it might want to consolidate at this level before attempting another leg up. At this point, ITG has support provided by its 10-dma at $51.95 followed by additional support at its last consolidation base at $50. Traders considering a position in ITG should look for a move through resistance at $55.00 or a bounce off today’s intra-day low of $54.09 on volume of 100,000 shares traded by noon EDT.

Picked on May 16th @ $54.52
Change since picked +0.08
Stop Loss @ $51.40