E*Trade Gains Market Share as Schwab Loses; Web Trades Rise 69%
By Stephen Cohen
San Francisco, May 4 (Bloomberg) -- E*Trade Group Inc., the
No. 2 online broker, gained ground on leader Charles Schwab Corp.
in the first quarter as assets in Web brokerage accounts passed $1
trillion, according to U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray Inc.
Schwab's market share slid to 21.4 percent from 22 percent
while E*Trade's rose to 15.7 percent from 15.3 percent.
Overall, online brokers executed 69 percent more trades than
they did in the previous quarter, Piper Jaffrey said, up from a 55
percent growth rate in the previous quarter. They added 2.5
million accounts. Assets grew 23.5 percent, topping $1 trillion.
San Francisco-based Schwab executed an average of 293,318
trades a day, added 400,000 new accounts and $683 million in
assets in the quarter.
Ameritrade Holdings Corp. gained ground, passing Datek Online
Holdings Corp to become the No. 5 broker. Ameritrade's market
share rose to 9.5 percent from 8.8 percent in the fourth-quarter,
while Datek's fell to 8.8 percent from 10 percent.
Tradescape.com Inc., which specializes in active traders,
joined the top 15 with 1.5 percent of the market. The company's
2,000 accountholders made an average of 20,501 trades a day.
DLJDirect, Scottrade, the online brokerage unit of Scottsdale
Securities Inc., Dreyfus Corp. and National Discount Brokers Group
Inc. all lost market share. Cybercorp, now controlled by Schwab,
and Quick & Reilly Group Inc., the brokerage unit of Fleet Boston
Financial Corp. were the other gainers.
Piper Jaffray said traditional brokerage firms like Merrill
Lynch & Co., Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. and American Express
Co. have refused to release their online brokerage results, but
don't appear to be making significant progress in online
investing. |
