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After all, this is the Nasdaq. "It's thrilling," says Hernandez. "This market is the wave of the future — the virtual world, the virtual market." As he looks into the street level broadcasting studio on the corner of Broadway and 43rd Street, Hernandez scans the screens for quotes on other companies he's recommended to clients — chinadotcom, JDS Uniphase and Intel. Hernandez says that computerized exchanges like the Nasdaq, in which buy and sell orders are matched by computer instead of by the shouts and screams of brokers in a trading room, represent the way all trading will be conducted in the future. "The New York Stock Exchange is a dinosaur," he says. "The Nasdaq is much more efficient." Chris Clemson, an avid technology investor is standing a few feet away. He stops by the Nasdaq Market Site to peer in through the window and check out stock quotes. Clemson says Tom Costello's reports for CNBC offer a knowledgeable snapshot of the high-octane Nasdaq market. "He's more than just pointing at the screen and quoting stocks," says Clemson. "To me, it's like the difference between a weatherman and a meteorologist. You expect the meteorologist to know what he is talking about. If he's just reading me quotes — I could do that myself." Like "Good Morning America" and other street-level shows, on-air personalities attract gawking viewers. Jose Vascos, a former stockbroker who left Lehman Brothers after the 1987 stock market crash, says he stops by to see the television broadcasters, but doesn't own any stocks, just mutual funds. "It's in vogue," he says. "People are standing here watching the screens saying, 'oh, I should have bought that — it's up $2.' It's like gambling, people can't stay away."
Some bystanders, like 17-year-old Leonardo Tamayo, aren't looking for stock quotes. Pointing at one broadcaster, Tamayo says, "That girl over there — that's what I'm looking at."
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aime
Hernandez, a 28-year-old stockbroker from San Juan, Puerto Rico
is gazing into the Nasdaq Market Site, a glass fishbowl with more
swirling colors and numbers than a Las Vegas casino. He's checking
to see how Palm Inc.'s initial public offering is going. So far
the 23 million shares have rocketed out the gates, trading up 112
points to 150, the biggest percentage winner in one of the hottest
public offerings in — well, a day or so. 
