Brokerages put the pressure on...
[B] US Press: SEC eyes financial Web sites as potential brokers
By Storme Street
Washington, May 24 (BridgeNews) - The Securities and Exchange Commission
could begin regulating Web sites that give stock advice, the Washington
Post reported Thursday. SEC officials, representatives of brokerages and
financial Web sites, including AOL and Motley Fool Inc., met for a roundtable
discussion here Wednesday to discuss the potential for the sites being
designated as broker-dealers--and regulated as such.
* * *
Web sites that offer financial advice must maintain a clear line between
editorial material and advertising, regulators said. However, regulators are
concerned that because advertising on these sites allows users to trade from
pages containing journalistic writing, the sites could technically be
considered brokerages.
Broker-dealer firms must register with the SEC, and employees must be
certified and subject to certain regulation.
"What got us started on this discussion was, gee, portals are starting to
look a lot like broker-dealers," said Laura S. Unger, acting chairman of the
SEC. "They provide all the information but they aren't doing anything to
actually execute trades."
Brokerage houses raised the issue with regulators on the fear that they
could lose business to Internet portals. According to the Post, however,
Wednesday's discussion was informal, and the rules are not likely to change any
time soon.
The best way to ensure clarity for readers between editorial content and
advertising is to obviously separate the two within a site, several members of
the panel discussion said. End
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Media://Analytics/Pages:AOL-Menu:/cmd=AOL/cf/menu
First Call Consensus Earnings Estimate
Media://Analytics/Pages:AOL-Earnings-Estimate:/cmd=AOL/CF/EST
60-day Price History
Media://Analytics/Pages:AOL-Price-History:/cmd=AOL[1350MOV3]/DAT=L60
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Media://Analytics/Pages:AOL-EPS:/cmd=AOL[1584EPS]
Users of BridgeStation 6.33 and higher can double-click on the following:
Daily bar chart with volume
Media://Athena:AOL-Bar-Chart:/symbol=AOL/layout=barvol.cht/period=daily
Dynamic intraday tick chart, with volume
Media://Athena:AOL-Tick-Chart:/symbol=AOL/layout=LineVolLong.cht
Daily point-and-figure chart
Media://Athena:AOL-Point-and-Figure:/symbol=AOL/layout=pointfigure.cht
Price chart with 100- and 200-day moving averages
Media://Athena:AOL-Moving-Averages:/symbol=AOL/layout=barma100-200.cht
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Copyright 2001 Bridge Information Systems Inc. All rights reserved.
May-24-2001 14:16 GMT
Symbols:
US;AOL
Source B BridgeNews Global Markets
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