David Jackson

Covestor and VesTopia: Winners and Losers from Peer to Peer Investing

Hi Guy,

I mentioned in the article that most people's concerns focus on the security issues. Rikki addressed Covestor's approach to that in his comment above; can you talk about how VesTopia is approaching security?

David

TD Ameritrade/E*Trade Merger Rumors Should Give Shares a Boost - Barron's

The fit is actually very good, because a merger would not only allow the companies to cut costs, but would extend E*Trade's banking offering to Ameritrade's customers, leading to stronger asset inflows, higher customer retention, and higher profitability per customer.

But it's not clear that the management succession issues could be easily solved,. It would probably take a much sharper decline in trading volumes that we've seen so far to push AMTD and ETFC into serious talks. So the Barron's speculation is probably too early.

Full disclosure: Long ETFC in my kids' accounts (from when I bought it at about $3 in the last downturn).

Zecco To Offer Free Stock Trading - Threat to Online Brokers

Wells Fargo has been offering free trades to some of its customers for a while (see Wells Fargo aims at Schwab, TD Waterhouse, Ameritrade, E*Trade).

It doesn't seem to have had much effect yet. Perhaps once trades get to a certain low price, other factors may become more important: website functionality, execution, spread, and integration with banking.