Ameritrade Online Investors See Buying Opportunity.

Business Editors

OMAHA, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 17, 2000

Ameritrade Index Shows Overall Net Buying of Three-to-One

CISCO SYSTEMS INC, JDS UNIPHASE CORP, and MICROSOFT CORP were the top stocks bought at Ameritrade Inc. in a strong rally by online investors during trading Friday, according to the Ameritrade Online Investor Index, the first daily measurement of the investment activity of certain online investors produced by Ameritrade Holding Corporation (Nasdaq: AMTD).

The closing drops of 617 points in the Dow and 355 on the NASDAQ were used as an opportunity by investors at Ameritrade to grab up shares of high tech companies such as CISCO at discounted prices. While CISCO is at the top of both the "buy" and "sell" lists, "buys" outpaced "sells" almost 5 to 1. Overall, online investors were net buyers of stock at a three-to-one margin.

"Despite the sharp declines in the market indexes the Ameritrade Index was heavily weighted toward buying activity," said Jack McDonnell, President of Ameritrade, Inc. "It would appear that many customers saw the sell-off as an opportunity to purchase high quality technology stocks," he said.

The top 10 stocks bought in yesterday's trading and the net percentage of buying they represented of total buying and selling activity in all stocks, value weighted, were as follows:

1)       CISCO SYSTEMS INC                  19.80 percent
2)       JDS UNIPHASE CORP                   8.84 percent
3)       MICROSOFT CORP                      8.66 percent
4)       ORACLE CORP                         5.72 percent
5)       QUALCOMM INC                        4.58 percent
6)       AMERITRADE HOLDING CORP             3.92 percent
7)       EMULEX CORP                         2.39 percent
8)       YAHOO! INC                          1.80 percent
9)       CMGI INC                            1.74 percent
10)      NOKIA CORP                          1.65 percent

The top 10 stocks sold through close of trading yesterday and net percentage of selling they represented of total buying and selling were as follows:

1)       CISCO SYSTEMS INC                  3.70 percent
2)       JDS UNIPHASE CORP                  3.17 percent
3)       AMERICA ONLINE INC                 1.46 percent
4)       SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC               1.27 percent
5)       ORACLE CORP                        1.21 percent
6)       QUALCOMM INC                       1.21 percent
7)       ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES             0.91 percent
8)       INTEL CORP                         0.71 percent
9)       YAHOO! INC                         0.68 percent
10)      CMGI INC                           0.49 percent

(Note: The net buying activity of all stocks bought, when added to the net selling activity of all stocks sold, equals 100 percent.)

The Index, which is available to the public at www.AmeritradeIndex.com, shows whether individual online investors at Ameritrade are net buyers or sellers on a given day, along with the top 10 equities those individual investors bought and sold. The Index is market value weighted. Research conducted by Roper Starch Worldwide indicates that Ameritrade investors are representative of online investors as a whole.

The Ameritrade Online Investor Index measures individual investor behavior, rather than the stock price movement of a specific basket of company stocks. The Index is calculated daily and available several hours after normal market close. It features a chart of the current day's Index, as well as a listing of the top 10 buys and sells for that day. The data is drawn in aggregate from Ameritrade, Inc. customer databases and does not include information from day trading accounts, as explained on our web site. Individual account information is not relevant to the calculation and complete confidentiality is maintained at all times.

Ameritrade, Inc. customers and visitors to the site are also able to compare the Index to other leading market indexes such as the Dow Jones Composite, Nasdaq 100, Nasdaq, S&P 500 and the NYSE indexes. The Ameritrade Index web site includes video presentations that discuss the Index and characteristics of online investors at Ameritrade Inc..

Ameritrade Holding Corporation (www.amtd.com) is a pioneer in the discount and online brokerage industry. The Company provides brokerage services and clearing services to self-directed individual consumer investors and to financial institutions through its subsidiaries. Subsidiaries of Ameritrade Holding include: Ameritrade, Inc. (www.ameritrade.com), a leading online deep discount brokerage firm; Accutrade, Inc. (www.accutrade.com), a discount brokerage delivering superior levels of personal service and support to its clients; AmeriVest, Inc. (www.amerivestinc.com), a provider of third-party discount brokerage services and other financial services to commercial banks, credit unions and thrift institutions; as well as Advanced Clearing, Inc. (www.advancedclearing.com), a securities clearing firm providing clearing services to each subsidiary as well as other financial institutions.