It started with one major brokerage firm announcing in February that it would slash commissions on U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds by 38%. So, instead of paying $7.95 to buy or sell a stock or fund online, the cost dropped to $4.95. Not to be outdone, another major firm responded by matching the price. It was an eye-catching price cut, since that firm had only recently fired a shot at the competition by lowering its commissions to $6.95.
The new "price war" plays out well for active investors — a war in which Fidelity and Schwab are the major players, but where there are definitely plenty of qualified options and some new pricing models to chose from.
Equities.com, an emerging growth financial media and investor community, and brokerage service Tradier Brokerage Inc. announced the launch of unlimited trading on the Equities.com platform via Tradier Brokerage Inc. The partnership is providing investors and Equities.com users an unlimited, free monthly trading subscription for the first two months and following the initial two-month period for an unlimited $29.95 monthly trading fee.
The new feature on Equities.com marks the first time a media company has made a trading offering on a news portal, marking its transition from a solely news platform to a fintech media and investor trading community. The partnership with Tradier democratizes and unbundles traditional trading, giving avid investors the ability to execute stock trades on an investor and news community platform, according to the company. The feature kicked off this month on the Equities.com website is for U.S. equities and ETFs, including NYSE, Nasdaq and BATS listed securities, and will begin to offer options trading capabilities later in the year.
ETFs come in hundreds of varieties, but if you aren't familiar with them, think of them like a mutual fund. Many give you a simple, low-cost way to buy an index, or slice of the stock market, such as the Standard & Poor's 500 index or the Dow Jones industrial average. These funds have become extremely popular as investors have figured out that cheap funds that follow indexes typically do better than all the so-called genius stock investors who try to pick winning stocks and avoid losers.
An ETF combines the valuation feature of a mutual fund or unit investment trust, which can be bought or sold at the end of each trading day for its net asset value, with the tradability feature of a closed-end fund, which trades throughout the trading day at prices that may be more or less than its net asset value. Closed-end funds are not considered to be ETFs, even though they are funds and are traded on an exchange. ETFs have been available in the United States since 1993 and in Europe since 1999. ETFs traditionally have been index funds, but in 2008 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began to authorize the creation of actively managed ETFs.
ETFs offer both tax efficiency and lower transaction costs. More than $2 trillion were invested in ETFs in the United States between when they were introduced in 1993 and 2015. By the end of 2015, ETFs offered 1,800 different products, covering almost every conceivable market sector, niche and trading strategy.
Enzo Villani, CEO of Equities.com commented, “Equities.com has continued to evolve to meet the demands of investors, who are looking to consume news, content and trade all on one site. We are excited about the partnership with Tradier focused on making trading more affordable and accessible with a transparent subscription based flat-fee model. The Equities.com audience includes savvy investors and self-motivated millennials who visit our site to learn about under-covered companies and new market trends. With our new trading capability, investors have access to news, content and trading all in one place.”
Dan Raju, Founder and Chairman of Tradier said, “Our partnership with the Equities team signals a new direction for trading in line with today’s news-driven and content focused markets. Equities.com and Tradier together are changing the trading culture with this new launch to empower self-directed investors to consume data while trading often without the obstacles of the traditional per-trade costs. We are pleased to partner with fintech innovators like Equities who are truly digitizing financial services while expanding into new demographics of online investors.”
Larry Tabb, Founder and Research Chairman of The TABB Group said, “The linkage between information, knowledge and trading has been tightly aligned from the development of markets. As branded information becomes overwhelmed by less credible sources, it becomes critical for trading platforms to partner with only the most insightful and reliable of information providers. Increasingly, aligning news, insight and research with trading will be critical in developing a single platform to give the active investor the information they need to invest in a complex and challenging market.
About Equities.com
Equities.com is a fintech company connecting emerging growth companies, global investors, executives, fund managers, financial experts, and industry professionals on one platform. Equities.com provides trading services, breaking editorial news coverage, and financial information on public and private companies. As an emerging growth and investor community with over 4.2 million visitors per year, Equities.com encourages investors to trade and consume independent news, content and data on fast growing companies while highlighting emerging market trends. Equities.com helps public and private companies gain visibility in front of millions of potential investors, influencers, and decision-makers.
About Tradier Brokerage Inc.
Tradier Brokerage, Inc. — a member FINRA and SIPC is an independent subsidiary of Tradier Inc. The Brokerage API enables entrepreneurs, businesses, developers and active traders to solve their trading and brokerage challenges using independent content and tool providers of their choice — at simple and competitive prices.
About Tradier, Inc.
Tradier Inc. is a cloud-based financial services provider and brokerage API Company that offers a groundbreaking platform to serve Platform Providers, Advisors, Developers and Individual Investors. Tradier delivers an innovative set of fully hosted API's, modules and "out of the box" tools that are leveraged by a growing list of providers seeking to create innovative trading and investing experiences. Tradier Brokerage Inc. passes along all exchange and regulatory fees.