ISDEX Futures Approved For Trading

ISDEX
Futures were approved by the SEC and CFTC (the two boards governing futures
and investing products) which means investors wanting a way to invest in
ISDEX can do so by trading futures contracts at the Kansas City Board of
Trade soon.

For the uninitiated here’s a nice definition of futures:
simply put a futures contract is an agreement by the investor to buy or
sell a certain number of an investment vehicle (in this case the ISDEX
index) at a designated future month at a price agreed by both buyer and
seller. Futures contracts are promises to actually buy or sell at that date
and price and not an option to do so.

Options will also be available.
What’s an “option?” an option gives you the right to buy or sell ISDEX
futures but is not a promise to actually do either.

Which is all a wordy way of saying that ISDEX has now become the world’s
first Internet stock index futures contract investment. Whew! For more info
please see kcbt.com.

Meanwhile, on the WEBDEX front, a look at the top 10 Website values per
unique user shows values dipping as merger mania loses some steam.

With
the merger of AOL (NYSE:AOLnews) and Netscape complete I’m allocating a higher
valuation for AOL.com as it holds the promise of leveraging the
Netscape.com user base perhaps into more cross-pollinated services. While
not necessary to boost the value I believe certain elements of Netscape’s
Netcenter better fit with AOL.com and vice versa.

Net net that translates
into more potential for ecommerce, marketing and advertising across a wider
swath of Internet user both at work (Netcenter) and at home (AOL and
AOL.com).




















































































































































Internet.com’s

January

Mar 17

Mar 24

Mar 17

Mar 24

Percent

WEBDEX

Users

Market cap or PMV*

Market cap or PMV*

User

User

change

 

(millions)

(millions)

(millions)

Value

Value

 

AOL.com*

38.0

$8,750

$9,250

$231

$244

5.7%

Microsoft.com*

30.1

$9,000

$9,150

$299

$304

1.7%

Yahoo

29.5

$34,513

$32,182

$1,170

$1,091

-6.8%

Lycos

28.5

$4,369

$3,960

$153

$139

-9.4%

GO Network (SEEK)

22.8

$4,997

$4,718

$219

$207

-5.6%

GeoCities

19.3

$3,484

$3,204

$181

$166

-8.0%

Netscape.com*

18.0

$5,000

$5,100

$278

$283

2.0%

Excite

18.2

$5,861

$6,722

$322

$369

14.7%

Time Warner web sites

12.2

$1,750

$1,600

$144

$131

-8.6%

AltaVista*

11.2

$1,250

$1,100

$111

$98

-12.0%

TOTAL

200.1

$78,974

$76,986

$3,107

$3,032

-2.4%

AVERAGE

25.5

$7,897

$7,699

$311

$303

-2.4%

MEDIAN

21.0

$4,999

$4,909

$225

$225

-6.2%

) 1999 internet.com *pmv=estimated private market value for website only;
users, media metrix; valuations by Steve Harmon

With all the merger momentum going the one notable exception is Microsoft
(NASDAQ:MSFTnews) . It hasn’t made a move to acquire a large traffic site or
round out its MSN services in a big way in quite some time. Perhaps the
anti-trust trial slowed down Microsoft but I can’t see it being dormant on
the big buy front much longer.

Speculation that Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOOnews) may
acquire Broadcast.com (NASDAQ:BCSTnews) sent BCST up 37% buy sent YHOO down a
few points, off 6.8% since March 17. I think the fit makes sense for Yahoo
to jump start its broadband presence by adding the audio-video
guide.

Yahoo’s still in the process of a pending merger with GeoCities
(NASDAQ:GCTYnews) to boost its community side.

Leading WEBDEX is Excite
(NASDAQ:XCITnews) with a 14.7% pop per user value as investors start to believe
that its merger with @Home (NASDAQ:ATHMnews) ought to be in synch with ATHM.
The agreement called for a pre-split terms: @Home will issue 1.041902
shares of ATHM for each share of XCIT.

The other two slots in the top 10
are held by Time Warner (NYSE:TWXnews) and Compaq’s AltaVista. But if I look at
the scale of the other 8 firms here, all of which are merging (except
Microsoft as noted) then how’s this for a combination: Time Warner
acquiring AltaVista? It may need to go shopping soon to keep up with the
others.

Accolades for Internet Stock Report:

"Fresh and provocative" -CBS
Marketwatch, who named
Steve Harmon as one of the “Best of Wall Street” and only independent
analyst honored

"I am a huge fan of Steve Harmon’s analysis"
-Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr






Blip us with an e-mail to stocktalk@internet.com
on what you think about any
Internet stock or investment you’ve seen or heard about to. Send us your
rants, raves or ramblings and they may be included in this column in a
special feedback edition every week. Throughout the trading day be sure to
check Internet Stock Report’s index of leading Web companies, the ISDEX,
Internet Stock Index, for a roundup of how Internet stocks fare minute to
minute.

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