WHO says you can't take it with you? On-line trading is on its way to Hong Kong, and with its arrival - probably within a couple of months - punters will be able to take their portfolios anywhere and make their trades anytime.
Charles Schwab, the big San Francisco-based discount broker, opened an office in the territory last week and expects to have nearly 200 Hong Kong-authorised funds available for Internet trades within a few months.
'It's a relatively trivial exercise for us to turn it on,' Schwab International president Timothy McCarthy said. The company already has 750,000 on-line customers around the world and is opening more than 11,000 on-line accounts each week.
Interestingly, Jardine Fleming Unit Trusts chose to announce the 'imminent arrival' of its Internet dealing facility for local residents just two days before Schwab's launch.
But a call to Hong Kong's biggest unit-trust company revealed the estimated time of arrival to be two months off.
Schwab International managing director Gloria Lau said her company was 'actively negotiating' to add Jardine Fleming's range of more than 40 funds to its own offerings. Negotiations were also under way with Goldman Sachs, she said.
