DATEK ONLINE TO OFFER BEFORE-HOURS TRADING
After-Hours Session Extended Until 8 p.m., Creating 12-Hour Trading Day
Iselin, NJ -- September 14, 1999 - Datek Online, the first major online brokerage firm to offer an after-hours evening trading session to individuals, is now the first to offer a morning before-hours trading session. As of tomorrow morning, Datek Online will enable investors to place limit orders on the Island ECN, the second largest alternative trading system, for Nasdaq stocks beginning at 8 a.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. In addition, Datek Online tomorrow will extend its evening session until 8 p.m. Eastern Time, creating the first 12-hour trading day for individual investors.
"Datek Online customers will be able to trade from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. Eastern Time, the longest trading day in the industry," said Edward J. Nicoll, President and Chief Operating Officer of Datek Online Holdings Corp. "This continues our efforts to empower individual investors by providing them with the same opportunities available to professional traders and institutions. Individual investors can have their trades executed when they want, instead of having to wait for the beginning of traditional trading hours."
Mr. Nicoll added, "There appears to be strong demand for early morning trading, with approximately 20% of our daily trades often occurring between 9:30 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. Eastern Time."
Datek Online became the first major online brokerage to offer an evening trading session on July 20, 1999, when the Company enabled investors to trade Nasdaq stocks between 4 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. Eastern Time. The 75-minute evening session accounts for nearly 2% of the Company?s daily trading volume and approximately one-third of the 3,000 trades executed on the Island ECN during the evening session.
Mr. Nicoll said that he expects the new extended evening session, combined with the introduction of pre-market trading, will accelerate the growth of extended-hours trading. He noted, "In the eastern United States, individual investors now can trade after work in the privacy and convenience of their own homes; while investors in the western United States now have the ability to trade well into the afternoon."
Mr. Nicoll also pointed out that individual investors are taking advantage of extended hours to act on news reports that are issued outside traditional trading hours provided by the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market. He said, "In fact, our heaviest after-hours trading session was on August 17, 1999, when Dell Computer Corporation announced its financial results after the markets closed. With the launch of our morning session, individual investors will be able to act more quickly on news reports issued prior to the traditional market opening at 9:30 a.m."
About Datek Online
Datek Online is the nation's fourth largest online brokerage firm in terms of average daily trades, according to Credit Suisse First Boston 1st Quarter 1999 Report. Consistently ranked among the top firms in the industry by Piper Jaffray and Gomez Advisors, Datek Online empowers individual investors by providing them with access to the financial markets through innovative technology. Located on the World Wide Web at www.datek.com, Datek Online was established in 1996 and is headquartered in Iselin, N.J. |
