Online Broker TradeKing Unveils July Webinar Schedule; Traders of All Experience Levels Benefit from Wide Range of Topics

Online broker dealer TradeKing today announced the lineup for its July online webinar series, with a range of topics geared at helping investors explore advanced trading strategies as well as protect against continued market volatility.

The July webinar series will include "Index Options," hosted by Marty Kearney, director and senior staff instructor of CBOE Options Institute; "Bond Basics, Part Two," with Mike Rasmussen, trading specialist with TradeKing; "Learn about the Greeks," led by Peter Lusk, instructor of CBOE Options Institute; and a "Rookie's Corner" focused on "One Cancels Other Orders," hosted by TradeKing's director of education, Nicole Wachs.

Both Kearney and Lusk are new contributors to TradeKing's webinar series. Kearney is senior staff instructor of the CBOE Options Institute, the educational arm of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, where he helps brokers develop new business through conservative option strategies. Kearney is co-author of Understanding LEAPS and contributing author of Options: Essential Concepts and Strategies (3rd edition). He is also a regular contributor to many news services including Barron's, Fortune, CNBC, Bloomberg, and others.

Lusk is also an instructor at the CBOE Options Institute. Prior to teaching for the Institute, Lusk was a successful market maker for 10 years on the floor of the CBOE, trading equity options. He was also involved in options training for new market makers at Lakota Trading in Chicago.

TradeKing's Webinars are free and open to TradeKing clients, as well as other investors. August's webinar schedule will be available starting July 15.

Computer problem stops floor trading at NYSE

Traders were frustrated for about 40 minutes Friday when a computer glitch stopped trading in more than 200 stocks on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

One of the key computer servers used to conduct trading lost connectivity to the trading network between 11:30 a.m. and 12:10 p.m. ET. The outage affected 242 stocks, including such heavyweights as General Electric and ExxonMobil.

Trading in those shares was halted on the floor of the NYSE until a backup server was put in place, says NYSE spokesman Ray Pellecchia.

"It was a single server with a connectivity problem. It lost its connection to the network. It created an issue getting orders were they needed to go," Pellecchia says.

Investors who may have bought or sold the affected stocks have no reason to worry about getting an incorrect price, Pellecchia says. Any trades sent to the NYSE during the time of the outage were immediately canceled and the brokers notified.

In addition, all the affected stocks were continuously traded electronically on the NYSE's electronic Arca system as well as on other exchanges, including the Nasdaq.

Many of the traders on the floor of the NYSE can also place trades electronically. If a trade was denied during the time the NYSE's system was down, it would have be rerouted temporarily to an alternative market or exchange.

"We'll review the problem tonight," Pellecchia says. "But it's back to business as usual."

Bajaj Capital Secures Online Trading with RSA’s Solution

With the rising interest in equity among Indian citizens, there has been a substantial rise in the number of websites offering online financial services. However, while the Internet has seen a rise in the number of online transactions, it has also simultaneously witnessed crimes associated with these transactions. Hackers have become more sophisticated, having moved from hacking mere e-mail accounts to compromising online financial accounts.

Phishing and man-in-the-middle attacks have seen a steep rise over the last two years and pose a major security challenge for financial organizations, both large and small. With these organizations extending most of their financial services to customers over the Internet, it has become imperative for them to have the necessary protective mechanisms in place.

Bajaj Capital is one such organization. A leading investment advisory and financial planning company, the company has a nationwide presence with its services being used by a range of private and institutional investors. It launched its online investment and brokerage services portal called justtrade.in in 2008. To ensure protection to its customers, the company deployed a range of security measures such as firewalls, intrusion detection and password encryption technologies.

Vinesh Menon, Deputy CEO, Online Investments, Justtrade and Retail Business Head, Bajaj Capital explains, “The level of threat to our website from attackers is no different from any other online transaction portal. However with the increase in online transactions, we also expected an increase in online threats such as hacking and phishing which can have a direct impact on the credibility and trust that every customer places in us.”

TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION TO THE RESCUE 

To counter these issues, Bajaj Capital decided to adopt two-factor authentication in the form of hardware tokens. Before deployment, the company looked at other organizations that had deployed similar solutions to analyze the benefits and shortcomings of these solutions. Says Menon, “We looked at other companies who had implemented two-factor authentication using hardware tokens and realized that along with the benefits that the solution had to offer, it posed a few challenges of its own. For example, the customer had to be educated on activating the tokens, using them and maintaining them safely.”

Additionally, if the customer loses the security token he/she is not able to login into the website to transact. Typically, it takes around 10 to 15 days to replace the misplaced token. Such a lead time can have harmful effects in an online trading scenario since markets keep changing on a daily basis and customers want real-time access to market information and their transactions.

Having taken these challenges into consideration, the company decided to deploy RSA’s two-factor authentication solution called SecurID. In collaboration with RSA, Bajaj Capital ensured that the replacement time was cut down to two to three days. In case the security token is misplaced, the customer has the option of calling the company’s call center to gain access to trading on the website.

Bajaj Capital has made it mandatory for new customers to buy the security token when signing up for the company’s financial services. “With the cost of the device being approximately Rs 750 for five years, it comes to around Rs 12 per month, which is not a major cost at all, considering the benefits it has to offer,” says Menon. However, this requires that the customer be educated about the benefits of using the solution to ensure that the user is convinced and does not resist the solution as being a premium service.The company is offering the devices free for high-volume customers and has between 500 to 700 clients in this bracket.

Online Forex Trading, Goodbye Middleman

Largest world market: The largest financial market in the world is the Forex Market with an approximate USS$ 1.5 trillion trade per day. The main reason for the huge size of the market is the extreme demand worldwide for foreign currency. Central banks and international businesses thrive on International Trade as a main income sources with currency prices floated and not dependant upon gold prices. The ease of Online Forex Trading has made the market even more attractive and lucrative.

Reasons for online trading: Online forex trading has many great advantages such starting trade with a couple of hundred US Dollars, trade twenty-four hours a day, seven day a week and no commissions payable to middlemen, making returns on capital more. Online forex trading companies generally offer high leverage ratio’s to clients as an added bonus. Special trade software provides real-time news, charts and analysis as well as demo accounts for you to try your hand at trading with no risk.

Cost: Online forex trading costs significantly less than normal forex trading due to cutting out of the middleman as well as other brokerage costs not being applicable. Fees that may be applicable to your online account will be account opening, monthly or yearly admin as well as software costs.

Experience: If you have never played the foreign exchange market is recommended that you do a course or research on the subject as you are exposed to high risks you may not be able to manage with limited experience or a broker. Forex trade has great returns, however the risk must balance with the return.

Risks: Foreign currency trading is conducted over-the-counter, thus not on a formal exchange such as New York, Tokyo or Johannesburg Stock Exchanges therefore limited regulations and legislations are applicable making the chance of fraud, money laundering or plain theft greater. In general these transactions carry very high risk with the effect of gearing or leverage with very small movements in the market having a significant affect on your deposit either against you or to your advantage. Risk-reducing orders intended to eliminate high losses may not be effective at all, as some market conditions make order execution impossible. Automated Trading is not everyone’s cup of tea.

Traders and Investors Get Online Trading Education and Futures Trading Help

A new social networking web site for stock market traders and investors is growing in popularity because it is free, and offers help for experienced as well as novice investors who want to learn about the latest strategies that work in spite of financial turmoil.The site is www.TradersLaboratory.com where members can participate in an open forum discussion on many topics that are of concern to stock market traders and investors. The financial crisis has given traders and investors the need to be more informed and educated financially. “TradersLaboratory.com is the place where anyone can discuss and interact to educate themselves about the financial markets. It is a place for traders and investors to learn to make better financial and investment decisions,” explained James Lee, chief executive officer and founder of the site.Membership is free, and registered members receive full access to the forums as well as the other resources to help them learn to be better investors. The site also includes educational trading videos, articles, reviews, a chat room, trading blogs, webinars, an economic calculator, and much more. Members have access to quality trading education through the discussion forum, plus they benefit from a broker and vendor review section.“TradersLaboratory.com is a community driven website, where content and information is shared publicly and provided by our members. We provide a powerful online financial network where you can find traders from around the world participating in the forum discussions related to the current financial markets,” said Lee.“The numerous forums on the portal support discussion about various topics related to trading from technical analysis to trading psychology where individuals discuss and learn how to tackle emotions like fear and greed,” he added.TradersLaboratory.com has a strong team of moderators to ensure that the integrity of the portal and respect of the members is maintained at all times. This provides members with a comfortable and quality environment

SMC Group (India) Launches Online Trading Services with PNB: An Alliance of Trust and Technology

SMC Global (India) one of the leading broking house in India has launched its online trading services with PNB. Now consumers can enjoy the convenience of investing in financial products from the comfort of their home / offices by using SMC Global's website, also online trading link in provided on bank's website at pnb website.
Newspaper Coverages
SMC Global's CMD Shri SC Aggarwal and CEO-NSBL Shri Ranjan Dhawan after signing agreement with Dr KC Chakrabarty CMD, PNB, says, "We always believed consumer is king and our new 3-in-1 offering at competitive rate is just a natural next step."
SMC Group has its strong in-house research team of analysts, which periodically comes out with comprehensive market reports on equities, commodities, mutual funds, insurance, etc. The web portal www.smcindiaonline.com is already working on secure transaction processing system and now this new alliance is a further boost for it.
"I am a small time businessman and investing my hard saved money in this volatile market was very challenging for me. Now after 2 years of association with SMC, I must say I made a right decision and as they say money wise bewise," says Mr Mohit Sharma one of the happy investor.
Mr SC Aggarwal, CMD, SMC global added, "It is in fact a win-win alliance for PNB, SMC and for the clients too. Through this alliance, now 40 million PNB customers can access our state - of - art online trading services which would be available at huge network of 4600 + branches of PNB and supported by SMC network of 1500 offices over 350 cities. In addition to the existing huge customer base of the bank, the alliance would equally and aggressive target the acquisition of new generation customer group by offering top of the class technologies product."
About SMC Global, India:SMC Group is a leading full fledged financial services provider in India and overseas, offering institutional and retail brokerage of equity, commodity, currency and derivatives trading, on-line trading services, Portfolio and Wealth Management services, investment banking, clearing & depository services, IPOs, Mutual funds and insurance products (both life & general).
Over the years, the group has expanded its domestic & international operations. Existing SMC network includes regional offices at Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Cochin, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Hyderabad plus over 1500 offices across 350+ cities in India. The company has also expanded internationally, and has established office in Dubai, becoming a member of the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX). SMC has got the membership of all the leading equity, commodity, currency, depositories & spot exchanges of India. Currently SMC has a highly efficient workforce of over 3500 employees and over 7500 financial advisors serving the financial needs over of more than 550,000 loyal customers.
Achievements: 2nd largest distributor of IPO in retails 4th largest brokerage house in India Fastest Growing Retail Distribution House in Financial Services in India
Sources: Prime Data Ranking, Dec 2008. Dun & Bradstreet, 2008 Business Sphere, 2008
SMC is not only a gigantic financial services provider in India but is also spreading its roots now in overseas.It not only holds an upper hand in terms of convenience but also saves your valuable time and energy from exhaustive errands to tedious and complex trading procedure in your vicinity.