Site Opens Market To Small Investors

Low-cost service requires no minimum investment

By Maria Trombly

February 28, 2000 12:00 PM ET

Small investors who are just getting started are often advised to put away a small amount of money from each paycheck. The two main ways to invest at that level -- short of saving cash until there's enough for a significant stock purchase -- are mutual funds and the direct investment programs that some publicly traded companies offer.
Unfortunately, many of the most popular technology companies don't offer such programs, or they require the investor to do a good bit of paperwork.
Now the Internet has made it possible for a third party -- Bellevue, Wash.-based Netstock Direct Corp. -- to offer direct investment plans in more than 2,000 companies through its ShareBuilder.com site.
This service, which is being marketed directly to consumers as well as to other online brokers, requires no minimum investment and costs only $2 per transaction.
According to Netstock CEO Jeff Seely, the company is able to keep prices low by bundling transactions together and processing them just once a week, while other online brokers race to get their transactions through as quickly as possible.
For example, Seely said customers who sign up to buy $200 worth of Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT) stock once per month aren't concerned about exactly what time of day -- or what day of the week -- the shares are purchased.
And if $200 doesn't buy an even number of shares, Netstock will buy and hold the remaining fraction of a share.
Customers can sign up online and arrange for automatic transfers from paychecks or bank accounts. ShareBuilder.com handles all paperwork and keeps track of the information necessary for tax purposes.
Although ShareBuilder.com is a new service -- the Web site debuted in December -- a number of other companies are already offering it through their sites.
"ShareBuilder.com enables our users to act on the information they get on our Web site," said Sara Gilbertson, senior vice president of marketing at McLean, Va.-based Womenconnect.com Corp., a business site that targets professional women and women business owners.
Other sites that offer links to ShareBuilder.com include Seattle-based Go2Net Inc.'s (Nasdaq:GNET) Silicon Investor and New York-based TheStreet.com Inc. (Nasdaq:TSCM).

Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Additional Resources

Xerox

Win a color printer!

By using solid ink technology only from Xerox, you could save up to 65% by printing color for the cost of black and white. Enter for a chance to WIN a PhaserTM 8860 network color printer!

Microsoft

Upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 today.

Save time and mitigate security risk. Deploy it now.

Sybase

NEXT-GENERATION MOBILITY PLATFORMS

In this white paper, IDC analyzes the role of next-generation mobile enterprise platforms as organizations seek a more strategic deployment of mobile solutions.

Learn the important issues you must consider before starting your next mobility initiative. Get your mobility white paper from IDC now, compliments of Sybase.

White Papers & Webcasts

Sustaining SOX Compliance: Best Practices to Mitigate Risk, Automate Compliance, and Reduce Costs
Since the adoption of SOX, much has been learned about IT compliance. Discover how to make SOX efforts more effective in "Sustaining Sox...

Usability Is Everything
Learn what sets Workday's HR and Payroll solutions apart from the competition....

IDC White Paper: CCM for IT Compliance and Risk Management
Learn from industry analysts how IT organizations are using configuration management to meet compliance requirements and instill best practices. Find out how these...

The Value of Real SaaS at Workday
Cost savings, speed to value, and innovation brought to the enterprise by Workday's software-as-a-service solutions for HR and Payroll....

Keep it Clean: Maintaining the Integrity of your CMDB through Change Detection
Learn how configuration drift can challenge configuration management database (CMDB) integrity and how a configuration audit tool and an effective change management process...

SaaS at Flextronics, Inc.
Dave Smoley, CIO of Flextronics, discusses the real value of software-as-a-service and why he chose Workday for his HR solution....

The Tripwire HIPAA Solution: Meeting the Security Standards Set Forth in Section 164
HIPAA requires businesses that handle personal health information (PHI) to set up strong controls to ensure the security and integrity of that information....

Why Compliance Pays
This OnDemand webcast explores the relationship that firms with best compliance records have higher revenue, greater customer retention, lower financial losses from data...

Configuration Assessment: Choosing the Right Solution
Configuration assessment lets businesses proactively secure their IT infrastructure and achieve compliance with important industry standards and regulations. Learn why configuration assessment is...

Agile Enterprise Content Management (ECM) for Rapid ROI
Find out how combining ECM and BPM will help adress issues about content rich business processes....

All White Papers | All Webcasts