Discount online brokers Datek and SureTrade.com were designed with one thing in mind: speed. Favorites with day traders and aggressive investors, these two sites score well when it comes to the essentials, though they lack the breadth of more traditional, full-service brokerages.
The poster child for technical prowess, four-year-old Datek Datek excels in providing fast executions, real-time stock quotes, and speedy trade confirmation and portfolio updates. Well-known for its promise to waive commissions on any trade that isn't executed within 60 seconds, the firm has the advantage of a trading system created just for the Net. It also routes orders through the Island electronic communications network, which makes for quicker executions during normal trading hours and allows for afterhours trading until 8 p.m.
FleetBoston Financial's SureTrade.com also caters to the speed-obsessed investor and offers similar access to real-time quotes but seeks to differentiate itself with low commissions and margin rates. Datek charges $9.99 for both market and limit orders on a maximum of 5,000 shares. SureTrade's fees for the same size grades are $7.95 for market orders and $9.95 for limit orders. Datek account holders also pay 8% interest on margin debit of $10,000 or less, while SureTrade clients pay 7%.
SureTrade customers can trade options -- a feature not available on Datek -- or place trades over the phone or with a broker 24 hours, seven days a week. But they have access to only 100 free real-time stock quotes a day, while Datek provides free unlimited access to continuously updated prices.
NO MINIMUM.
Both sites are streamlined and frills-free. In fact, SureTrade.com, with its $7.95 market-order commission fee filling the screen, resembles a coupon more than an online brokerage. Both have similar application processes, which can be completed in eight or nine steps, but you almost need a lawyer's guidance to do so. Neither requires a minimum balance to open an account, although investors can't begin trading until they mail a signed printout of their applications and fund their accounts.
Free company research and market news notwithstanding, neither Datek nor SureTrade is sympathetic to neophyte investors. These sites are designed for regulars, whose goal is to get to the trading screen as fast as possible. Still, Datek's learning center includes some useful basic information from the Securities & Exchange Commission and a beginner's investment guide from Smart Money magazine. Of the two, SureTrade has more comprehensive research, featuring content from Stockpoint, Zack's Wall Street Source, Briefing.com, and iSyndicate's Digital Investor.
For experienced investors who are confident enough to make their own calls, the differences between these online brokerages is minimal. Both provide what do-it-yourselfers want most: the tools and technology to execute trades as fast as a broker -- without a broker's fee.
Copyright 2000 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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