Article About Online Trading
Wells Fargo Launches Internet Trading, ETrade Predicts Growth
Wells Fargo moves into online trading while ETrade hopes to add a million new customers to its service.
by Reuters
August 4, 1998, 3:28 p.m. PT
The world of online trading is growing in leaps and bounds. Established brokerages, Internet-based trading shops, and even brick-and-mortar banks are getting in on the action.
Joining the burgeoning number of banks entering the trading arena is Wells Fargo. The California-based bank on Tuesday launched Wells Fargo Securities, a broker-dealer subsidiary of Wells Fargo that lets
customers buy and sell securities over the Internet.
The new service, known as WellsTrade, is aimed at investors who make their own buy and sell decisions. Wells Fargo said customers can make trades, get real-time quotes, and check their account balances 24
hours a day. The service, which charges customers a flat fee of $29.95 for trades up to 1000 shares, is available via the main Wells Fargo Web site (see link at right). For trades in larger quantities the charge is $29.95 plus 3 cents for each share over 1000. The service
can also be used with a touch tone telephone at a fee of $34.95 for up to 1000 shares, plus 3 cents for each share over 1000.
Company research and news will be available on the Web site through Zacks Investment Research and News Alert, Wells Fargo said. In addition to its new virtual trading centers, Wells Fargo said it is also opening 20 new centers in the Western United States to provide full brokerage services for customers. The new full service centers are located in cities stretching from San Diego to Seattle and in such major cities as Houston, Salt Lake City, and Denver.
On the Internet-based brokerage front, ETrade expects to add 1 million accounts to its current base of 460,000 over the next four to eight months, Senior Vice President Rebecca Patton told investors. She also
projected the company would quadruple its number of accounts between the end of 1997 and the end of 2002.
Speaking at the BankAmerica Robertson Stephens New Millennium Conference in San Francisco, Patton said ETrade aims to grow its business by becoming a full-fledged "financial portal" on the Internet. The company will shortly launch a new Internet site offering
a range of content and community services to enhance its stock trading business and help ETrade distinguish itself from the growing number of online brokerages, she said. |
