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Non-Tech : E*Trade (NYSE:ET) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Diamond Jim who wrote (13142)	4/13/2000 8:20:00 PM
From: Spytrdr	Respond to of 13953

E-Trade, Ameritrade gain on Schwab? E-brokerages say momentum is in outsized volumes By Emily Church, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 7:08 PM ET Apr 13, 2000 NewsWatch NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Record trading volumes are lifting all boats on and off Wall Street so far this year, and brokerages have been posting banner profits for the March quarter as a result. Today on CBS MarketWatch Nasdaq, Dow deep in red Sun's killer quarter Users drive Webvan results Gateway on target Net rebound fades More top stories... CBS MarketWatch Columns Updated: 04/13/2000 6:33:44 PM ET Looking ahead, the focus is starting to shift to market share as the numbers continue to roll in. Early indications are that the trend is shifting, starting with the online brokerages and their trading volumes. Executives from E-Trade (EGRP: news, msgs) and Ameritrade (AMTD: news, msgs) this week made clear on earnings day conference calls that they both believe their well-above-forecasts volumes in the March quarter are proof positive that their respective firms are moving up the market share ladder. See related story. The unspoken target at the top, of course, is Charles Schwab (SCH: news, msgs). The discount giant led the industry in both assets and trades per day in the December quarter, according to US Bancorp Piper Jaffray. It's still too soon to call the March quarter; Schwab has given early indications of their results, but privately-held Fidelity, the fourth-largest in trades per day, hasn't reported yet. Year-to-date, investors have favored the on-and-offline firms Charles Schwab (SCH: news, msgs) and TD Waterhouse (TWE: news, msgs) over Ameritrade and E-Trade. Ameritrade on Thursday said it averaged 149,000 trades a day in March quarter, which is up 84 percent from the December quarter. E-Trade on Wednesday said average trades per day rose 73 percent from the December quarter to 229,000. A handful of analysts are already confident that E-Trade and Ameritrade are moving up on Schwab, which had a 22 percent share in overall trades per day vs. 15.3 percent for No. 2 E-Trade and 8.8 percent for No. 6 Ameritrade. (TD Waterhouse was third and Datek Online was fourth in December.) "Without question they are taking market share," said Scott Appleby at Robertson Stephens. "Ameritrade and E-Trade are definitely taking share of new accounts from everyone, including Schwab," said Greg Smith, analyst at Chase H&Q. "The asset levels are still low, but these new online accounts represent the future," he added. Volume had been estimated to grow 50 percent over the previous quarter. "We continue to increase our share in New York Stock Exchange (trades) and on the Nasdaq as a percent of total trades," Tom Lewis, co-chief executive at Ameritrade, told CBS.MarketWatch. "Not everyone in the industry has reported, but let's wait and see where the numbers fall," he said. Schwab said on April 3 that daily average commission trades exceeded 320,000 in March, "a new record that is more than double the average for March 1999." Schwab purchased day-trading firm CyberCorp during the quarter, which also generated 18,000 average daily commission trades. Still, E-Trade's rate of growth in trades-per-day has some suggesting that the brokerage looks to pass Schwab this year. Assets in accounts are a key status measure, and no one's anywhere near Schwab on the asset side. Trades-per-day are also important. Even as many brokerages move to diversify their revenue sources, some 60 percent to 65 percent of revenue for the industry on average is estimated to come from trading transactions, according to Piper Jaffray. Smaller firms are far more reliant on trading. Emily Church is the New York bureau chief for CBS MarketWatch.