The moment was ripe for speculation. That same morning J.P. Morgan CEO Sandy Warner announced his firm’s acquisition by Chase Manhattan, one day after canceling his own appearance at the Merrill conference. And two days earlier Goldman Sachs had announced that it was buying Knight competitor Spear, Leeds & Kellogg. Sure enough, Pasternak’s last-minute cancellation sent his stock flying - nearly 25 percent in a few hours. A record 44 million shares changed hands, more than ten times Knight’s average daily volume of 3.9 million. Three weeks later there was no deal in sight for Knight. Where was Pasternak? He’s not saying, but he suggests that a little market paranoia may be at work. “I have scheduling conflicts all the time,” he says. “I’ve canceled on conferences many times before, and it didn’t cause the stock to go up $8. The only thing that’s changed is all the speculation going on around us.”
