Entries this day: astroworld stock

astroworld

17 March 1999

Hrmmm..

On Saturday I went to Astroworld! It was opening day for the park and it was cold!! Actually the wind helped chill things more than the actual temperature, but overall this was great because only a few people were in the park!

Though the lines were short I have good and bad (sad (kinda)) news. The bad kinda sad news is that Excalibur has been removed from Astroworld. My understanding is that it has been sold to Frontier City, a park on I-35 in Oklahoma. It's in storage now and will be assembled for 2000 season.

Excalibur was a mine train coaster built in 1972. It was the first significant coaster at Astroworld. I talked to one of the maintenance guys who had worked at Astroworld for a while. He said that Excalibur was a fine ride, but didn't draw the people to the park. I said, "it drew *me* to the park!"
He said with a smile, "you'll like the new one better."

Good news is that a new ride called Serial Thriller will take its place. It should be installed by Memorial Day 1999. Serial Thriller will be an SLC (Suspended Looping Coaster) the maintenance guy said. It allows riders' legs to dangle like a ski lift, and will have FIVE inversions!!!

Right now, however, there's just dirt where Serial Thriller will stand. I got pictures of the dirt, and of the metal tubing holder things that will be the frame of the coaster.

I took 30 some odd pics from Astroworld including while on the following rides: Viper, XLR8, Greezed Lightnin', Batman, Ultra Twister, Cyclone, Mayan Mindbender.

Texas Tornado (no longer Taz's Texas Tornado) was not running while I was in the park. Actually it was running, but with no riders.

These are pics for my book, _Rob's Rollercoaster Roundup_. permalink

stock

17 March 1999

Some days ago, I put $1500 into a discount brokerage in order to purchase FlashNet stock when it debuted yesterday.

Because it's an internet stock, it's considered volatile. Because it's volatile, I was not allowed to place an order at Market Value, which means, "I don't care what price, just buy it." So I said, "um, how about I'll buy it if it's less than $25."

Yesterday, FlashNet opened in the primary market at $17. That's for the homies who know the right people to buy it at the initial offering price. It hit the secondary market at $39. So my order did not go through. My inner guidance suggested that I just let it go for the day and order some again today.

I just called and spoke with L__ at the brokerage L asked how many shares I wanted.

"I want as many as I can buy when it opens."

L said okay, at what stop limit? (highest price the customer is willing to pay)

"I don't care what price."

Nope.

"So wait, if I say, I want it if it's below 1 million dollars per share, I'll get 1 share, but only if I have 1 million dollars in my account."

Yup.

"And if I say I want it at whatever price, you say no because it's volatile."

Yup.

[sigh] "Okay, gimme however many I can get if it's less than $50 per share." (Current market value is $44)

"That will be almost 30 shares but you'll owe us $12 commission."

"I assume you cannot spot me twelve dollars."

L laughed.

"I'm not entirely joking; if you can do it, I'll be glad to pay ya back."

"You'll have to pay us within 3 days."

"So I could just drive over with a check and it's all good?"

"You could even mail it."

So there it is; I made my order and US markets open in 40 minutes. We'll see what happens. permalink