
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 12, 1995                   TAG: 9501130032
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

NASDAQ FACES REFORM

The Justice Department, which is probing charges of collusion on the Nasdaq stock market, is proposing changes to a small-order trading system in an effort to improve competition.

The Justice Department's detailed proposals, obtained Wednesday, offer the first public glimpse of the extensive antitrust investigation of the nation's second-largest stock exchange. The department is reviewing possible anti-competitive behavior on Nasdaq, an electronic stock market run by the National Association of Securities Dealers Inc., after several class-action lawsuits filed last summer charged major Wall Street firms colluded to charge excessively wide ``spreads'' in Nasdaq stocks to fatten their profits at the expense of individual investors. Nasdaq and the firms deny the allegation.

-Associated Press

by CNB