Dashboard trading straight to market
Etrade offers investors direct access to buy and sell online with no third party execution, writes Anna Healy Fenton
Buying stocks and shares can be a hairy enough experience at the best of times. Not for the faint-hearted, it actually requires a leap of faith to put your money into something that can just as easily fall as rise. Nowadays the idea of ringing your broker to instruct him to make a trade for you is not entirely history, but many investors choose instead to buy and sell online.
So what are the guidelines for choosing an online trading platform? Internet-based reviewer TopTenREVIEWS stresses the importance of being well informed. "With a good online stock trading service, you can learn everything to become a smart investor, and buy and sell stocks online."
Utilising an online stock-trading service, you can buy and sell stocks, options, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and various fixed-income securities including bonds. Most online stock trading services, the reviewer adds, also offer useful tools such as alerts, watch lists, third-party analyst reports, option chains, investment calculators and virtual trading. The best services offer free webinars, newsletters, blogs, seminars, forums, glossaries, definitions and more.
"Online stock-trading services should provide you with all the resources you need to make well- informed financial choices and the ability to buy and sell stocks from anywhere, including from your cellphone," the reviewer adds. Support resources can include educational materials such as articles, real-time charts, streaming news, investment calculators and a user-friendly trading platform.
It points out that fees and commissions can quickly escalate, with most services charging fees for trades, broker assisted trades, option trades and so on. Generally, customers can expect all online stock trading services to offer the ability to buy and sell stocks, options, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. The online review concludes: "Because buying and selling stocks online can be a bit nerve racking, the best services provide excellent support by telephone, e-mail, instant messaging and chat."
Etrade is an example of an online platform that Hong Kong investors can use to trade on US markets. Set up in 1999, it describes itself as a technology-driven platform.