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Strategies & Market Trends : The Final Frontier - Online Remote Trading -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: agent99 who wrote (10961)	9/30/2003 11:53:45 AM
From: TFF	Respond to of 12617

Fidelity Slashes Online Trading Fees Mon Sep 29, 4:20 PM ET Add Technology - Internet Report to My Yahoo! By Svea Herbst-Bayliss BOSTON (Reuters) - Fidelity Investments on Monday slashed stock trading fees by more than 40 percent for online brokerage customers in a bid to attract new business amid stiff competition. Beginning on Wednesday, online traders in stocks and options will pay a commission of $8 per transaction, down from $14, Fidelity executives said. Fidelity, the No. 1 mutual fund company in terms of assets, is also promising to execute orders within five seconds and is lowering the minimum level for customers to qualify as "active traders." Fidelity's announcement follows similar price cuts at online brokerage Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE:SCH - news) and illustrates how competitive the industry has become as the stock market rebounds after several years of losses. "This is the lowest trade commission Fidelity has ever offered in our retail brokerage platform," Jeff Carney, president of Fidelity Personal Investments, said on a conference call. It hopes to boost the number of active traders by 30 percent in the next year, he said. Boston-based Fidelity, which is privately held, did not say how many customers use its online trading platforms. To qualify for the lower commissions, investors must now have $1 million in assets with Fidelity or have $30,000 in combined household assets and make 120 stock, bond, or option trades per year, the company said. Previously, the requirement was $2 million in investable assets at Fidelity or 240 trades annually. "This might make quite a few people who have more than $1 million in their retirement accounts at Fidelity eligible for this type of trading," said John Bonnanzio, editor of independent newsletter Fidelity Insight. SEEKS 'CONVERTS' If Fidelity fails to execute the biggest and most actively traded U.S. stocks within five seconds during regular market hours, it will waive the commission. Ameritrade Holding Corp. (Nasdaq:AMTD - news) now offers a 10-second guarantee, and E*Trade Group Inc. (NYSE:ET - news) makes a nine-second promise, analysts said. "We are trying to convert people over from our competitors," Carney said, who insisted the new rules had been planned for some time and wasn't in reaction to rivals' plans. Analysts said that by cutting the cost of entry for clients who want to make their own trades Fidelity may be giving itself an edge, at least for a while. "Fidelity's new active trader service could make it more challenging for rivals to win new accounts and lead to more attrition, particularly among those competitors with less attractive trader price points," Merrill Lynch analyst Colin Clark wrote in a commentary. Executives at Fidelity said lower fees were not meant to encourage so-called market timers who trade stocks and bonds at a rapid-fire pace. "We are serious about growing our business and this is not in any way a signal that we are going after day traders," Carney said. State and federal regulators have been probing whether some mutual fund firms allowed big investors to engage in market timing when buying and selling shares of mutual funds, a practice that is believed to lower the returns for long-term shareholders.

To: agent99 who wrote (10961)	9/30/2003 6:56:17 PM
From: TraderAlan	Respond to of 12617

Im glad somebody posted this because it reiterates the old lies. Does everybody realize what a stupid statement this is: "Charles Biderman, chief executive officer at TrimTabs.com Investment Research, says much of the quick buying and selling is focusing on the same sorts of technology and Internet stocks that populated accounts during the late 1990s. Starting in 2000, many of those investors lost fortunes, and many of the firms that egged them on have now shut their doors." He's calling traders "investors" and making it sound like they were more at risk than all the shlubbs that lost millions holding onto $200 Net stocks for three years while the market collapsed. WSJ should be ashamed for publishing this populist garbage. Alan