Business Services Industry
Four in 10 become customers after one version of simulated online trading; Reality bites funny-money investors.
Crain's Chicago Business, February, 2001 by Miller, Rick
If investors can make a bundle in the stock market playing with funny money, will they trade just as much using their own dough? Companies such as E*Trade Group Inc. in Menlo Park, Calif., and Ameritrade Holding Corp. in Omaha, Neb., will be among the first to find out. They're giving potential customers a pot full of funny money to test-drive a simulated version of their online trading sites.
And it's all done in the name of investor education - something the Securities and Exchange Commission has been pushing - although critics say it smacks of another slick marketing ploy. In some cases, online simulations nab four out of 10 users as new clients, says an industry executive. ``There's a danger out there in the online world of leading people to think...
- 5 Rules for Immediate Annuities
- Death in the Family: 12 Things to Do Now
- Dumbest Things You Do With Your Money
- 6 Online Networking Mistakes to Avoid
- 401(k) Mistakes to Avoid
- 5 Economic Scenarios to Keep You Up at Night
- The Real ‘Best Places to Retire’
- Best Credit Cards for You
- 12 Tough Questions to Ask Your Parents
- The Real ‘Best Colleges’
- Home Buyer Tax Credit: How to Cash In
- Why You Shouldn't Bash Cash
- 8 Phony 'Bargains' and Better Alternatives
- Danger: 3 Debit Card Scams to Avoid
- 6 Myths About Gas Mileage
- 29 Fees We Hate Most
- Quick and Easy Ways to Boost Returns
- Best Stocks to Buy Now
- Lower Your Taxes: 10 Moves to Make Now
- New Jobs: 8 Lessons from Real-Life Career Switchers
- The New Job Market: Who Wins and Who Loses?
- Health Care Reform's Public Option: Everything You Need to Know
- Volunteer Work When Unemployed: Should You Work for Free?
- Whose Recovery Is This?
- Long-Term-Care Insurance: 4 Biggest Risks to Avoid
Most Recent Business Articles
- Multiple criteria evaluation and optimization of transportation systems
- Multi-criteria analysis procedure for sustainable mobility evaluation in urban areas
- A two-leveled multi-objective symbiotic evolutionary algorithm for the hub and spoke location problem
- Multi-criteria analysis for evaluating the impacts of intelligent speed adaptation
- The development of Taiwan arterial traffic-adaptive signal control system and its field test: a Taiwan experience
Most Recent Business Publications
Most Popular Business Articles
- 7 tips for effective listening: productive listening does not occur naturally. It requires hard work and practice - Back To Basics - effective listening is a crucial skill for internal auditors
- FAS 109: a primer for non-accountants - Financial Accounting Standards Board's "Statement 109: Accounting for Income Taxes"
- LIFO vs. FIFO: a return to the basics
- Design a commission plan that drives sales - Sales Commissions
- Using object-oriented analysis and design over traditional structured analysis and design
Presented by American Express