Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Schwab's Zero Commission Bombshell: So What's Next For Fintech?

In 1971, Charles Schwab launched a traditional brokerage firm. But the business did not take off until 1975, when the SEC ended fixed-rate commissions. Schwab knew that the future would be about the discount brokerage model.

To pull this off, he needed to invest heavily in technology, such as with online brokerage systems. Over the years, as the platforms changed–such as from proprietary services like AOL to the Internet to mobile apps–Schwab somehow found ways to adapt.

And yes, even though he is now 82, he still seems to be far from finished. This week his firm announced that commissions on US stock, options and ETFs will be $0.

"It's encouraging in the broader context of corporate purpose and sustainability to see a firm stay true to its purpose and passion of making investing more affordable,"said Geoff Cole, who is the fintech senior manager with Grant Thornton.

Now for the traditional brokerage industry, the impact is certainly ominous. There will need to be a way to make up for the lost revenues, such as by innovating new services. There will also likely be more layoffs.

"Online brokers are already under pressure due to this year's interest rate cuts,"said Arielle O'Shea, who is the investing and retirement specialist at NerdWallet. "Many generate revenue from banking divisions, or from interest earned on idle cash. Schwab is likely hoping this move will attract enough new assets to make up for that narrowing margin as well as the lost revenue from commissions.”

A Reckoning For Fintech Too?
Schwab's move is a validation of the fintech industry, especially with the impact from the fast-growing Robinhood. The startups in the space have advantages like starting from a bank slate as well as having access to enormous amounts of venture capital.

"We've certainly seen that the rise of customer-centric fintech companies has pushed the industry in a more client-friendly direction, and part of that is lower fees,"said Adam Grealish, who is the Director of Investing at Betterment. "Fintech companies use technology to achieve lower operating costs and are able to pass the savings on to customers. This has forced incumbents to follow suit.”

Yet this is not to imply that fintechs are immune from challenges. Let's face it, traditional brokers have inherent advantages, such as strong infrastructures, diverse service offerings and trusted brands. And besides, millions of people like talking to experts when it comes to their wealth.

"Unfortunately, I think in the short-term you will certainly see some attrition and consolidation among the start-ups whose sole selling point was free trading,"said Anthony Denier, who is the CEO of Webull. "There is more to investing than cost.”

The zero-commission strategy may actually be a tipping point, giving traditional brokers an edge in customer acquisition. According to a J.D. Power survey of self-directed (DIY) investors, the No. 1 reason for selecting a firm was "low fees.”

"This creates a challenge for fintechs,"said Mike Foy, who is a Senior Director of Wealth Management Practice at J.D. Power. "They will need to work harder to differentiate themselves from incumbents to continue to attract new investors seeking a low-cost provider.”

While fintechs have been innovators– such as with compelling UIs–there will probably need to be much more. For the most part, the history of financial services is about relentless commoditization. And it's been firms with massive scale, like Schwab, that have been able to thrive. This will likely be the case with fintechs as well.

Yet despite all this, the ultimate impact should positive, encouraging more and more competition. "In the end, the consumer wins,"said Steven Nuckols, who is the president and founder of Wealth Compass Financial.

Source Link:https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomtaulli/2019/10/05/schwabs-zero-commission-bombshell--so-whats-next-for-fintech/#1b33269577f8

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Webull is an online trading platform that offers stock trading with zero commission fees

Webull is a stock trading app that supports trading via mobile, web and personal computers. The company's legal name is Webull Financial LLC. They are a registered broker-dealer with the SEC and a member of FINRA and SIPC. The company was founded in 2016 and is a privately held, venture capital-backed company. Trades occurring in the platform are cleared by APEX Clearing Corporation.

1 Minute Webull Review
Webull is a robust self-directed trading platform designed for the active and intermediate or experienced trader, however, some beginner traders can also benefit from the platform. Features include commission-free trades in U.S. Listed Equities, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and foreign companies through ADRs. Brokerage services are provided by Webull Financial LLC, a registered broker-dealer with the SEC, and a member of FINRA and the SIPC.

Webull offers a comprehensive toolset: technical indicators, economic calendars, ratings from research agencies, margin trading and short-selling. Additionally, Webull offers community participation through a forum and competitions to educate and engage traders.

Webull helps you perform both fundamental and technical analysis:
Access to analyst recommendations, revenue and historical earnings per share data
Get key statistics, insider trades, stock quotes and information such as earnings, dividends and stock splits
Feeds to track news that could affect your stocks
Provides a real-time bar and line charts: time frames ranging from 1 to 60 minutes and historical data set going back in the past 5 years or more.
Use popular indicators such as Bollinger Bands, MACD, and more

Why Use Webull
If you've wanted to use a free trading platform that's suitable for day trading and has access to fundamental and technical information, then Webull is the app for you. Webull might be a bit more robust for beginner traders but you can quickly get used to the platform and make your first purchase and trade in minutes. Do you want to do a bit more research before buying/selling? Use the app features to make a better decision when to buy, sell, and hold. Webull is also a very good app for those who want access to a community of traders that share information. The community is currently available on mobile only.

Smile Summary: My Personal Webull Review After 90 Days
I've used Webull for about 3 months and it's not for the faint of heart. I am an investor, not a trader. I also have a moderate understanding of trading and initially found the app overwhelming. That's until I started playing around with the app and began utilizing their paper trade competitions. Webull does a great job of getting newbie traders comfortable with the platform. It's great that there are no commissions on trades and zero minimum balance requirements. I've made a couple of trades. My favorite part is access to all the research tools and really enjoy the community aspect that sets Webull apart from the competition.

This article come from: https://www.phroogal.com/review-webull-free-stock-trading

Monday, October 21, 2019

Webull Free Stock Trading with Real-Time Stock Market 2019

Webull is an online trading platform that offers stock trading with zero commission fees

Webull is a stock trading app that supports trading via mobile, web and personal computers. The company's legal name is Webull Financial LLC. They are a registered broker-dealer with the SEC and a member of FINRA and SIPC. The company was founded in 2016 and is a privately held, venture capital-backed company. Trades occurring in the platform are cleared by APEX Clearing Corporation.

1 Minute Webull Review
Webull is a robust self-directed trading platform designed for the active and intermediate or experienced trader, however, some beginner traders can also benefit from the platform. Features include commission-free trades in U.S. Listed Equities, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and foreign companies through ADRs. Brokerage services are provided by Webull Financial LLC, a registered broker-dealer with the SEC, and a member of FINRA and the SIPC.

Webull offers a comprehensive toolset: technical indicators, economic calendars, ratings from research agencies, margin trading and short-selling. Additionally, Webull offers community participation through a forum and competitions to educate and engage traders.

Webull helps you perform both fundamental and technical analysis:
Access to analyst recommendations, revenue and historical earnings per share data
Get key statistics, insider trades, stock quotes and information such as earnings, dividends and stock splits
Feeds to track news that could affect your stocks
Provides a real-time bar and line charts: time frames ranging from 1 to 60 minutes and historical data set going back in the past 5 years or more.
Use popular indicators such as Bollinger Bands, MACD, and more



Why Use Webull
If you've wanted to use a free trading platform that's suitable for day trading and has access to fundamental and technical information, then Webull is the app for you. Webull might be a bit more robust for beginner traders but you can quickly get used to the platform and make your first purchase and trade in minutes. Do you want to do a bit more research before buying/selling? Use the app features to make a better decision when to buy, sell, and hold. Webull is also a very good app for those who want access to a community of traders that share information. The community is currently available on mobile only.

Smile Summary: My Personal Webull Review After 90 Days
I've used Webull for about 3 months and it's not for the faint of heart. I am an investor, not a trader. I also have a moderate understanding of trading and initially found the app overwhelming. That's until I started playing around with the app and began utilizing their paper trade competitions. Webull does a great job of getting newbie traders comfortable with the platform. It's great that there are no commissions on trades and zero minimum balance requirements. I've made a couple of trades. My favorite part is access to all the research tools and really enjoy the community aspect that sets Webull apart from the competition.

This article come from: https://www.phroogal.com/review-webull-free-stock-trading

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Trader Toolkit: Institutional Holdings

With more and more trading platforms and the growing allure of low-to-no-fee brokerages, new traders are confronted with a deluge of options when it comes to trading and investing. But lost in the promises of sleek interfaces and free shares for signing up is the fact that successful trading takes time, practice and an understanding of resources experienced traders use on a daily basis.

With that in mind, we're going to use this new series of articles to take a look at the charts, ratios and indicators that play an integral role in how traders generate ideas and form convictions on their medium- or short-term trades. To do that, we'll be using the charts and tools available on the Webull stock trading app, which offers traders access to real, commission free trading in addition to a suite of advanced trading analysis and charting.

With another earnings season approaching, traders' minds are gradually beginning to shift back to the thrilling world of SEC filings.

However, beyond top- and bottom-line earnings figures, there is another bit of intrigue playing out in the manila-colored world of the SEC in the form of 13F filings, which reveal how the major investment institutions have adjusted their portfolios in the previous quarter and provide retail traders valuable insight into the institutional holdings of some of the biggest market makers.

As the name suggests, institutional holdings refer to the equity positions of institutional trading operations, which includes everything from major banks and brokerages to mutual funds and insurance companies. Essentially, an institution covers any organization that uses its own capital to trade or have others trade for them.

Because these operations readjust their holdings on a fairly regular basis, and those holdings are generally sizeable, knowing when institutions increase their exposure to a particular stock, industry or sector can provide traders some insight into how the major market movers are positioning themselves.

As an example of how this information is disseminated and how a trader might be able to apply it to his or her own strategy, let's take a look at the institutional holding information on Twitter, Inc.

TWTR 1.49% using the no-fee day trading platform Webull.

Starting from the top, you can see the total amount of institutions that have a position in Twitter, followed by the number of shares in the hands of those institutions and, finally, the percentage of available shares that are in institutional portfolios. Below each of these figures is the overall change in those holdings from the most recent 13f reporting deadline, 45 days of the end of the prior quarter. From the above stock quotes information, it's obvious that institutions are increasingly bullish on the blue bird.

For a more detailed picture, the chart below shows the number of institutions that either increased or decreased their position, opened a new position or entirely sold out of their position, as well as the number of shares bought or sold in any of those scenarios. It's interesting to note that, while the number of institutions that either increased or started new positions in Twitter is relatively even with those that decreased or sold out of their positions, the number of shares on the bullish end of the equation is more than double the bearish contingent.

Finally, for those interested in finding diversified investments with a stake in Twitter, the app also lists the ETFs with the largest exposure to the social media company.

Although this summary data can be useful for individuals attempting to for a thesis or strategy around a particular stock, traders can also see how a specific institution or fund has allocated their shares of a stock.

In the case of the Webull research app, traders can view the top additions/decreases for each of the institutions that have a new or existing position in Twitter

Using this information traders can gain a top-down view of the institutional bullishness on any stock they might have an interest in taking a position in, which can help in strategically allocating their own portfolio.

While all of this information constitutes a static data point until the next 13F day, the information could be extremely useful in anticipating how a stock might react if a negative headline causes share price to fall, which may be exacerbated by an outsized institutional player looking to avoid a loss.

On the other hand, an investor might follow a particular fund's performance and try to replicate the success of that portfolio, Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway and David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital each file reports that many investors pour over for information.

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Got A Portfolio That Can't Be Beat? Webull Will Give You A Tesla Or Pay Down Your Student Loans If You Prove It

Beginning October 7, 2019, veteran and novice retail traders alike are invited to participate in the WeTrader Paper Trading Competition.

For the uninitiated, paper trading is an entirely simulated investing tool that traders use to experiment with complex and novel day trading strategies with zero risk to their real-world capital.

The contest, sponsored by zero-commission trading platform Webull, will take place over five weeks and is split into two parts.

The first part, the Professional Trading Competition, asks participants to experiment with their best portfolio strategies over four week-long rounds. Each trader will begin the first trading day of the week with $100,000 in simulated capital. At each week's closing bell, the top 10 best-performing portfolios will be awarded an Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) gift card valued between $100 and $5,000 for the top prize.

In addition to the weekly awards, consistently profitable traders will be invited by Webull to contend in the Championship Competition, which carries a grand prize of either a Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) Model 3 S or a minimum $40,000 student loan payment to the trader with top-performing portfolio.

Although new traders might not have the sophistication of seasoned market watchers, novelty and originality could also pave the way to the championship. The weekly winners may secure their top spot through the success of their strategies, 30 additional participants will be enrolled in the final round based on how many likes their portfolio receives from others in the competition.

Finally, although traders of all stripes can look forward to sharpening their financial minds against each other for the chance to win these prizes, participants will also be contributing their investing efforts toward raising as much as $50,000 in donations to the Shriner's Children Hospital.

Below is a full breakdown of the competition dates and rules participants must follow in order to remain eligible. Traders can participate via the Webull mobile or desktop stock trading apps.

Additional information can be found on the competition homepage.

Professional Trading Competition

Round 1: October 7th – October 11th
Round 2: October 14th – October 18th
Round 3: October 21st – October 25th
Round 4: October 28th – November 1st
Championship Competition

Final Round: November 3rd – November 9th
Event Rules:

1. Trading will be open during regular market hours only (9:30 AM – 4:00 PM ET)

2. Users can place both market orders and limit orders

3. Users may only trade a single stock up to 10 times per day.

4. Users must trade more than three times and no more than 100 times per round

5. Users must own more than three unique stocks

6. Users may only trade stocks that have an average closing price above $5 in the trailing 30-day period

7. Users may only trade stocks with a market cap of at least $300 million

8. No single stock can make up more than 30% of a user's portfolio

9. Any evidence of automated trading or external plug-ins is considered cheating and will result in a ban from all present and future promotion