Tradeking in Business Week (Social Networking Hits Investing)

BusinessWeek

Social Networking Hits Investing
Tuesday August 21, 8:08 am ET By David Bogoslaw

TradeKing allows all of its members to have their own blogs through which they can share investment strategies, or even thoughts about the political landscape that may affect future market conditions. The site's key innovation is its Certified Trades capability, which allows users to reveal what they have bought and sold and at what price.Tuesday August 21, 8:08 am ET By David Bogoslaw

For most equity investors, the wild market volatility of the past few weeks has been cause for gritted teeth and palpitating hearts. But a few who have become active in online trading communities took some solace in the fact that they at least had found a place where they can see how other investors are riding out the storm.

"Just the fact that I'm seeing people in there buying calls (an equity option that bets on rising prices) and common stock has definitely given me confidence that the individual is buying on the dip, which is basically what I do, and it's always good to get some reassurance that other people are doing the same thing," says Jim Collins, who opened an account at TradeKing.com in January.

"We see today's consumers aren't content to sit back and have their entertainment sent to them, or their news or, increasingly, to have financial advice sent to them," says Donato Montanaro Jr., co-founder and chief executive of TradeKing, which launched in December, 2005. "They demand to be part of the conversation that impacts their lives, and we are empowering that conversation." Investors in TradeKing include Battery Ventures Partners, and O'Malley sits on TradeKing's board of directors

Investors Who Network Trade More

TradeKing allows all of its members to have their own blogs through which they can share investment strategies, or even thoughts about the political landscape that may affect future market conditions. The site's key innovation is its Certified Trades capability, which allows users to reveal what they have bought and sold and at what price.

Montanaro and Mike Massey, the company's director of community development, stress that TradeKing, as a brokerage regulated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), cooperates with regulators and updates them about new features it's thinking about adding to the Web site. Last August, it launched the certified trades function, which allows customers to see what other account-holders who choose to participate are trading, how many shares they're buying or selling, and at what prices. Perhaps more important, the certified trades feature assures customers that TradeKing knows that those participating are real people and has validated their identity.

Massey says his team reviews every blog entry and takes steps to remove comments that can be construed as unethical or potentially harmful to investors. "We try to be as light-handed as possible. In one or two instances, we have removed the user and taken down the content (he posted)," he explained.

Whether these sites can truly unleash the wisdom of the crowd for market players remains to be seen. But you can bet that in investing, as in other corners of the Web, the urge for community will grow stronger -- and the bigger players in online trading may have to respond to upstarts like TradeKing and Zecco.

For the complete article from Business Week click here

Happy Investing!

Sidarta Tanu