Investor Brain

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Queen for a Day

Note to readers:  This piece is a feature that was part of the cover package in the September 25, 2006 issue of Barron’s, which focused on luxury cars.  The research for this article was the most fun I’ve had as a freelance writer.  Contact me if you need a review of, say, renting a villa in Italy or comparing hotels in New Zealand.

To see a .PDF reprint of the article, which includes a photo of me behind the wheel of the Ferrari, click here. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"WOW, WHAT A RUSH!" I hollered as we exited Highway 280 in Menlo Park, Calif., punctuating the experience with a loud, “Yee haw!” Muttered my 17-year-old daughter, Kate: “That was terrifying.”

I had just tested how quickly the 1997 Ferrari F355 Spider I’d borrowed from Club Sportiva in San Francisco could get to 100 mph. Answer: very, very quickly.

Teenage boys obviously had a different view of the six-speed Ferrari than Kate. “Whoo-hoo! A Ferrari! Cool car!” three of them whooped as we drove, with the roadster’s top down, in San Francisco. “Nice ride!” called out another in Palo Alto. “Oh my God, where did you get that car?"-with a deflating emphasis on the “you"-squealed another at the local high school.

For the shock value alone, driving a Ferrari is great fun, especially for someone like me, with two children, who’s been driving a “mom car” for a couple of decades. Although Kate accused me of having turned into a man with a midlife crisis, I had a huge smile on my face the entire time I had the keys in my pocket and, especially, when I had my foot on the gas pedal.

Club Sportiva (http://www.clubsportiva.com) isn’t a typical car-rental place. As its name implies, it’s literally a club, and membership entitles you to borrow vehicles for up to 21 days at a time. An Elite membership costs $12,495 a year, and provides 80,000 points that can be swapped for a certain amount of drive time, depending on what you select. The lowest membership level, Gold, is $3,195 for 17,000 points. Each car in Club Sportiva’s fleet is assigned a daily point value-25 for a Ferrari, 19 for a Maserati, down to 10 for a non-luxury Mini Cooper convertible.

That value is multiplied by two factors—the month in which you drive the car, and whether you’ve got it for a weekend or a weekday. Taking out the Ferrari on a weekday in September costs 3,000 points, while driving a much more commonplace Mercedes CLK 500 costs a mere 1,440. The weekend tab would be 4,200 points for the Ferrari, and 2,016 for the Benz. The dollar value of a weekend day in the Ferrari for an Elite member is $656. Not cheap, but still almost $100 less than the same car rented for a day from Dream Car Rentals in Las Vegas (http://www.dreamcarrentals.com).

If you’re contemplating buying an exotic or luxury vehicle, a rental can be a smart way to really get to know a car for a few days. It certainly makes sense to carefully evaluate a $200,000 Ferrari or $100,000 Porsche on your schedule, rather than the sales staff’s.

And how much fun would it be to cruise up to your 25th class reunion in a Lamborghini? A supercar would be a fun treat for a special birthday or a surprise anniversary trip, too.

For a relatively comprehensive nationwide list of suppliers of fancy cars, check out the Exotic Car Rental Directory (http://www.exoticcarrentaldirectory.com). Be warned: The ease and cost of renting an exotic or luxury car depends, to a large degree, on your location. The closer you are to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, the New York City area, Chicago and Miami, the easier it is to find a company that will let you take a spin in a Ferrari, Lambo, Maserati or Porsche.

In Southern California, for example, Beverly Hills Rent-A-Car (http://www.bhrentacar.com) has several Ferraris and Maseratis, and recently picked up a Lamborghini and an Aston Martin. They even offer to deliver a car nationwide, for a price: To bring a Ferrari to me in Northern California would have tacked another $1,700 onto whatever the rental tab would be.

Would it be worth it? Maybe not. But once you’ve been behind the wheel of a Ferrari, spending that much or more to get in the driver’s seat again doesn’t seem irrational at all.

Test-Driving Luxury Sites

Note to readers:  This article was published in conjunction with Barron’s annual luxury car issue.  The article was short (by my standards) since there is a table accompanying the piece, plus an ad and a fair amount of white space.  I’ve restored some of the comments that didn’t get into print. 

CAR MANUFACTURERS SEEM TO THINK their websites must be packed with flash and glamour. Flash animations of vehicles travel the screens of many without prompting. And most make it way easy to find a live sales rep at a dealership. Yet key consumer information is often hard to locate.

Still, shopping for a car on the “Net is a great way to get a head start on the purchase process: You can get a feel for how much you’ll have to pay without leaving your desk. Just don’t expect to be able to complete the process online.

One of the better online offerings is http://www.bmwusa.com), “>BMW’s (http://www.bmwusa.com), which provides a 360-degree-view of your chosen vehicle, including interior and exterior colors. There’s just enough animation to keep the site interesting, but not so much that your browser bogs down. You can find a local dealer, and even search through dealers’ used-I mean, “pre-owned"-inventory, and save your searches for future reference. There’s also a section under the “Vehicles” menu where you can look at coming models.

http://www.cadillac.com)">Cadillac’s site (http://www.cadillac.com) lets you put together the car you want, and then search through the inventory at dealerships nearby to find whether an exact match is available. The Website gives you the ability to easily contact a GM certified Internet Manager to help answer your questions.

I like the “Which Lexus Fits My Budget?” feature on the http://www.lexus.com), “>Lexus site (http://www.lexus.com), found under the “Financial Services” tab. This site also gives those interested in Lexus hybrids tips for getting the most out of their cars.

http://www.audiusa.com)">Audi (http://www.audiusa.com) seems to assume that you know all of its models specifics, since the details aren’t available online. The configuration tool begins with choosing a model, even though there are no data, beyond the MSRP, to help you make that choice. Once you put a car together, you’re directed to a dealer for a quote.

http://www.infiniti.com) “>Infiniti (http://www.infiniti.com) not only lets you select a vehicle; you can get pre-approved for financing as well. The “Help Me Decide” feature, available on the first two screens of the configuration utility, provides useful information that is buried on most other sites.

I BOUGHT MY “MOMMY CAR,” a 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan SE, on http://www.carsdirect.com). “>CarsDirect (http://www.carsdirect.com). Shopping online was ideal at the time, as I was just completing a move from Japan back to the U.S. Time was my most precious resource, so doing the research and getting 95% of the way through the buying process without human intervention (a.k.a. pushy salespeople) was an enormous help.

The purchase process has changed at CarsDirect, however. Now you can only get as far as specifying the features you want before being prompted to have a human being call you with a quote-and a sales pitch. You can deal directly with the CarsDirect staff, or you can opt to talk things over with a local dealer.

The site lets you compare up to four vehicles side-by-side—very helpful in sorting out specs such as headroom, legroom and exterior dimensions.

When I bought my Caravan—at the time a hot model—I paid $8,000 below what a dealer had quoted me on the same car (down to the vehicle identification number). CarsDirect even delivered the car to my home, and we finalized the deal at my living room table. 

The good deals aren’t quite as apparent now, however. Most luxury-car models are quoted at their MSRPs, and can’t be bought directly from CarsDirect. Instead, it virtually escorts you to a dealer to complete the transaction. Times have changed, and not entirely for the better.

Table:  The Internet Highway

Most of these Websites offer terrific graphics, sound clips and animation and, frequently, the ability to view a vehicle from many angles. Some are light on key data, however—even price.

Site Address What’s There
Audi http://www.audiusa.com Little detail on each model available. Configuration tool, however, is fun. 
BMW http://www.bmwusa.com “Build Your BMW” feature lets you specify your desired options and provides a quote. 
Cadillac http://www.cadillac.com User-friendly path to explore and compare models, configure one, get a quote. 
Ferrari http://www.ferrariusa.com Lots of pretty pictures, but not much information. 
Infiniti http://www.infiniti.com “Help Me Decide” offers useful configuration details. Financing pre-approval possible here. 
Jaguar http://www.jaguarusa.com Flashy intro page. Pricing and offers easy to find. Can search for used vehicles, too. 
Lexus http://www.lexus.com Good financing tools, lots of useful info on the “Models” page. 
Maserati http://www.maserati.com Great graphics, photos and video. Nothing on pricing; maybe buyers don’t care. 
Mercedes http://www.mbusa.com Very comprehensive. Good configuration tools. Lots of video. 
Porsche http://www.porsche.com/usa Includes sound files, so you can hear that Porsche growl. 
CarsDirect http://www.carsdirect.com Luxury-car quotes don’t offer much in the way of discounts. Car comparison is handy. 

Published in Barron’s, September 25, 2006.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Note to Zecco Founders

Hey guys.  You need to hire a copy editor for your site.  There are so many typos and grammatical problems that the site looks amateurish.  The buzz I see that you’re trying to spread is that you plan to “take on E*Trade.” Ummmm, good luck with that. 

According to Om Malik’s GigaOm in a posted dated last Thursday entitled, “Skype backer takes on ETrade with free trades,” Morten Lund, one of Skype’s early funders, is now backing Zecco, a site that will allow free stock trades. 

The site is festooned with blurbs such as this one, which comes from the “About Us” page: “And you can even share your own thoughts. By signing up as myZecco member and contribute your thoughts and ideas. Big or small. You are more than welcome.” The opening page asks the musical question, “Are you interested to join?”

I spent part of last week in Prague, and lived for several years in Japan.  I’m getting a definite “English as a second language” feel from the writing on Zecco.  So a note to the founders and site designers:  People might not trust their money to you if they feel the site looks cheap or quickly cobbled together.  Find someone to clean it up.

As for the ballyhoo about the trades being free, here is my comment posted on GigaOm: “This isn’t a new idea. It’s been done. One of the other pieces of revenue for E*Trade, and quite a few other online brokers, is payment for order flow.

“When you enter a stock or option order, some brokers employ technology that seeks out the best price. Say you entered an order when the markiet is at $10/share. A broker who offers price improvement might find you a trade at $9.98. If you were trading 1000 shares, you just saved $20.

“But other brokers route their orders to market makers who PAY THEM for your order. Why? Because they are either selling from their own inventory, or bumping the price a smidgen and taking it from you. So your order when the market is at $10 might get executed at $10.05.

“Now your “free” order just cost you $50.

“I will cover this topic in more depthy in my Barron’s column (”The Electronic Investor”) in the not-too-distant future.”

As for the community promised in Zecco’s marketing, that’s being done at TradeKing and other sites right now, so that’s not a brand-new idea either.

That said, there are people who look for only low cost when choosing a broker.  They may be attracted to Zecco based solely on the “Free Trades!” campaign.  But they may end up annoyed by the Google text ads sprinkled liberally all over the page.  Once the site is open for business in approximately 280 hours, I hope to take another look. 

Sunday, September 24, 2006

A trip to Prague

Last week, I was invited to give a talk in London to a group that is putting together an online brokerage site.  Since I don’t (yet) review UK-based online brokerage sites, it wasn’t a conflict of interest to give them an update of a talk I’ve done from time to time with the theme of “How to be an Award-Winning Online Broker.” I’m happy to present it to any group that sends me a plane ticket and puts me up in a nice hotel. 

As long as I’d made the trip across the pond, I decided to spend a few extra days somewhere else in Europe. I hadn’t yet been to Prague, and wanted to visit before they convert to the Euro (not for a few years, so you still have time).  After spending two full days in London, I left for Prague on Wednesday afternoon.

I decided to go cheap on the transportation from my London base to Heathrow, so I took the Tube (Jubilee Line and transfer to Circle Line at Baker Street) from Canary Wharf up to Paddington Station, then hopped on the Heathrow Express there.  The total elapsed time was actually 20 minutes or so less than the drive in from Heathrow on Sunday afternoon, and I imagine it was a lot less expensive.

The flight to Prague was uneventful.  I was hoping that getting through immigration would be more interesting, but it went very quickly—which actually *is* interesting, since that’s usually a long ordeal.  I changed some money (exchange rate is about 22 Czech units to $1 US) and then bought a 3-day transit pass, which lets me take all the buses, trains, trams and funiculars I want.  The three-day pass cost about as much as each round-trip tube ticket I bought in London, and 2/3 of the Paddington Express ticket. 

A quick recommendation on exchanging money:  Use your ATM card to withdraw cash from their machines.  Your bank will slap on a fee for using an out-of-system ATM, but it ends up being cheaper than exchanging US dollars with an agent.  I did this in both London and Prague and got better rates than if I’d handed money over the counter.  I also used my credit card for as much as possible; those guys really know how to get good exchange rates!  OK, back to the story. 

I had to haul my stupid huge suitcase onto a bus, and then haul it off and carry it down two flights of stairs to get to the train, then haul it back up two flights of stairs when I got to my destination in the old town in Prague.  Finding the hotel was a little tricky, especially rolling the big suitcase over cobblestone streets, but I made it.  My hotel, U Kocku (pronounced “ooh coach-ku") is on Karlova street, which is basically the extension of the Charles Bridge to the north.  Lots of restaurants, souvenir shops, crystal stores, and so on. 

I didn’t get to my hotel until about 8PM, and then was starving, so after settling in I took myself out for an evening stroll around the old quarter while hunting for food.  I tried to order food at a restaurant that has a terrace overlooking the Charles Bridge and across to the castle, which is beautifully lit, but they had stopped serving food at 8.  Pout.  Eventually I found a little dive where I had some of the local cuisine—garlic soup, pork cutlet with a spicy mustard sauce, and a huge pile of chopped raw vegetables.  Plus a glass of red wine.  The garlic soup was VERY garlicky; I felt I was in no danger of being attacked by a vampire that evening.

My dinner surprise was a charge added to my bill that I didn’t understand, for 70 Czech crowns (a little less than $3.50).  It turns out that they charge when they put a big tray of condiments on your table, whether you use them or not.  I used about a tablespoon of vinegar.  I learned over my next three dinners that just about every restaurant charges some kind of fee just for sitting down.  This place had the highest charge; the more expensive restaurants charged less. 

On Thursday, I joined the 6 hour “Ultimate Walking Tour,” which also included a boat ride and a tram ride.  We started in Old Town Square, then went to the Jewish Quarter, then down to the river for a ride, then back to Old Town for lunch, then across the Charles Bridge and on to a tram that took us up to the castle district.  We walked past the Loreto and onto the grounds of Prague Castle, and poked around a bit there.  Then all of a sudden, the six hours was up.  It flew by.

I used my honed naviguessing skills to find the store that the guide told me might carry an adapter so I could recharge my computer.  I ended up going directly to the store he’d told me about—but they didn’t carry adapters. An English-speaking helpful sales dude told me about another store that’s near the next stop on the subway system, so off I went.  Having bought a three-day pass at the airport on Wednesday night, hopping on and off trams, subways, buses and so on is really easy.  His directions out of the subway were a little vague, but I stumbled on the place about 2 minutes before they were to close, and came away with my prize. 

That evening, I had dinner in a restaurant right on Old Town Square.  Very charming, and a fun place for people watching. 

Friday I decided to poke around more in Old Town and to visit the Jewish quarter.  It struck me that all the places I would want to visit would be closed on Saturday for Sabbath and Rosh Hashanah, so off I went.  I got a ticket that gave me access to six places and started off at the Maisel Synagogue, an interesting building filled with fairly old silverwork and such.  Apparently quite a few of the items in this display were stolen from other synagogues around Europe by the Nazis, who had planned to use Prague’s Jewish Quarter as their place to show off artifacts after they’d finished their extermination program.  Creepy.

I also visited the Spanish Synagogue, which is a beautiful Moorish building.  It continues the story being told in the Maisel, displaying some more recent silverwork.  The Klausen Synagogue focuses on educational topics, but the Pinkas Synagogue lists the names of the 80,000 Czech Jews who were killed during the Holocaust.  The Pinkas also has a room full of artwork done by children at the Czech concentration camp.  It’s very moving.

I was fascinated by the Old Jewish Cemetary.  Because the Jewish community was walled in and their movements were restricted, they also didn’t have much in the way of options when the time came to bury someone.  There aren’t records left to say how many people are buried here, but the graves got stacked on top of one another and the headstones were also just jammed in as close as
possible to the appropriate grave.  It was used for about 400 years, ending in the late 18th century.  I took loads of pictures.  Right next to it is a small museum that details burial customs.

I then walked over to the St. Agnes Convent, which is now being used as part of the National Gallery.  It’s filled with Czech art dating back to the 11th century.  After that I slaked my thirst with a beer and a snack, and rested up for dinner. 

I spent Saturday on the other side of the river, in and around Prague Castle.  The (literal) highlight was climbing the 287 steps to the top of the Old South Tower of St. Vitus Cathedral, where I also took loads of pictures.  I also went through several museums dedicated to the history of the castle and the art collected by the various kings and emperors over the 1000+ years the castle has existed. 

Then I strolled over to Restaurant David, as recommended by my dad, and had a wonderful meal.  My other three dinners have come with bowls of chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, and red peppers when I ordered a salad, but the David uses lettuce in their salads.  I also had a yummy roast veal dish with a mushroom sauce.  My waiter brought me a complimentary glass of dessert wine with the check. 

I walked off dinner by heading back across the Charles Bridge and over to my hotel.  On Sunday morning, I had to wake up very early to get all my junk downstairs when the car came to take me to the airport.  It was a great trip. 

Thursday, September 21, 2006

TradeStation Drops Platform Fee Bypass Requirement

Effective November 1, TradeStation customers who trade 5,000 shares or more in a month will have the platform fee waived for the following month.  This is a serious cut—from 25,000 shares—that will reduce costs for more TradeStation customers. 

For those who don’t made enough transactions, it costs $99.95 per month to use the TradeStation analytical platform.  I have long been a fan of the charting and trade automation capabilities of this platform.  It’s aimed at frequent traders—casual investors would be overwhelmed by what the program offers.

Janette Perez, TradeStations VP Communication, tells me that for the month ended August 31, 2006, year over year, TradeStation’s DARTs increased 40% and total client assets increased 20%.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Electronic Investor Paused

There was no EI column published in Barron’s in the September 11, 2006 issue.  Every so often, the magazine drops our column due to space issues. 

This move scrambled the calendar for the rest of the month, though.  I had turned in a piece for the 9/11 issue that will be updated and published in the 10/2 edition.  My review of online luxury car-buying sites will hit in the 9/25 issue, along with a feature I’m writing about renting a Ferrari for a day.  The latter piece was about the most fun I’ve had since I started as a freelance writer! 

Thanks for the emails asking, “What happened to the Electronic Investor?” I appreciate being missed. 

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Intuit Bows Out of Portfolio Management Arena

In a move that took me by surprise, mainly because I didn’t know the product existed, Intuit announced yesterday that they were shutting down a service aimed at independent financial advisers called Intuit PortfolioMinder.  It appears to be a product that was out there as a test, and Intuit apparently gave PortfolioMinder an “F.”

As near as I can tell, the program was introduced early this year, and was aimed at independent financial advisers with fewer than 100 clients.  PortfolioMinder (which I will call PM from here on out) was able to download data from three online brokers:  Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade and Fidelity.  If your clients trades were placed elsewhere, you had to enter the data manually—and for me, that would be a deal-breaker.

Given all the connections that Intuit’s Quicken has, I’m surprised that the company couldn’t set up more online brokers to link into PM.  One of Quicken’s few failings in my book is its inability to easily track portfolio items other than stocks and mutual funds.  A user can convince it to keep tabs on options and bonds, but it’s clearly a kludge. 

A solution for independent financial advisers that wasn’t terribly expensive actually fills a niche in the market that, on the face of it, I would think would be successful.  I’m guessing Intuit didn’t do a very good job getting the word out, though, given my surprise that the product even existed.  I don’t want to sound conceited, but I’m typically one of the first people to be notified about anything having to do with financial technology.

Looking at the pricing, however—a $995 setup fee plus $150 per month for online access—combined with the program’s inability to import data from brokers that represent over 50% of the online brokerage transactions, I’m thinking that Intuit set up its own enormous barrier to entry.  Just to get the product off the ground and create some buzz in the industry, they should have charged significantly less. 

There are other portfolio management programs that are geared towards much larger firms that aren’t much more expensive.  Hmm.  There’s an idea for a column.

Here is Intuit’s announcement that the product would be discontinued:

As of October 16, 2006, the Intuit PortfolioMinder product and service will be discontinued and closed to new and existing customers. This decision was made after receiving important in-market feedback and carefully considering Intuit’s short- and long-term strategies.

Intuit’s strategy is to be in growth businesses, high profit businesses, and attractive new markets where we can solve large unmet or underserved needs.  We will continue to invest in the best opportunities to drive top line growth, by making our existing products better and creating new offerings driven by customer need. This move helps us to invest in the best growth engine opportunities for Intuit and better align our internal resources for future growth.

Our goal with PortfolioMinder was to offer a low cost, self-serve, easy to use product for independent financial advisors to manage client portfolios, better serve clients and compete with big brokerages. Through in-market feedback from real customers, we discovered that the amount of effort needed to enter years of complex historical data and the resources required to support the product would not enable us to offer this product at the low price and ease that was our intent.

Because of our decision to roll the product out slowly and continue to learn from customers, less than 75 customers will be impacted by this decision. Each customer will be notified today (9.11.06) and receive at least three weeks notice prior to the site closing. We will offer a full refund of the purchase price and monthly fees, and make all data entered into the product available to them. Interactive Advisory Software (IAS) will offer special reduced rates for a limited time ($150/month for the first year, plus conversion fees) to PortfolioMinder customers who are interested in converting to the IAS platform.  IAS offers full Customer Relationship Management (CRM) capabilities and other functionality in addition to portfolio management.  Customers interested in this option can contact PortfolioMinder customer support for information on this offer. 

Customers may contact the PortfolioMinder team at 1-800-843-0012 or email contact@portfoliominder.com for more information.

-------------------------

And here is how I found out that the product existed and then was discontinued—a press release from a competitor, Portfolio Systems, Inc.:

Portfolio Systems, Inc. Ready to Serve Advisors Orphaned by Intuit

In the wake of Intuit’s exit from the portfolio management software field, Portfolio Systems, Inc. (PSI) has responded aggressively to assure the market that they remain committed to serving the industry and supporting the recently released version 8 of their Portfolio Director™ software.

“We have seen this happen before with TechFi,” company spokesperson Fred Standridge stated. “We were able to begin serving many of their subscribers very quickly, and we made the transition as smooth as possible.  We believe we can offer the same support to Intuit’s former PortfolioMinder subscribers as well.”

In addition to its standing policy of charging no up-front or service initiation fees, Portfolio Systems will provide former Intuit subscribers with an hour of training and support at no charge, and a rate of just $50 per support hour thereafter.  And because Portfolio Director™’s monthly service fee of $150 for a single-user license matches the rate published by Intuit for their product, advisors should not see any increase in their monthly overhead either.

Portfolio Systems, Inc. also offers the optional PDWeb™ service, which allows subscribing advisors’ clients to access their account reports online through the advisor’s own web site.  Advisors can customize the online reports as easily as they can customize reports in the application.

Portfolio Systems, Inc., has been a provider of investment portfolio management software for Registered Investment Advisors, CPAs, and individual investors since 1999.  The closely-held company is headquartered in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania.

---------------------------

I took a quick peak at Portfolio Director on in my June 24 column.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Refreshing the Screen

BETTER. FASTER. NEW AND IMPROVED. MORE POWERFUL. Software publishers survive by adding features and products to entice you to join their team, maintain your loyalty (if you’re already onboard) or come back (if you’ve signed on with a rival). Here are a variety of software publishers and online brokers striving for your attention—and your business.

INTERACTIVE BROKERS (http://www.interactivebrokers.com) has spruced up its tools for options traders by providing a new service, Options Intelligence Report, as well as volatility trading functionality.

Updated hourly, the Options Intelligence Report includes tables that highlight companies expected to have the greatest price movement. Examples include one table that ranks the top 20 gainers in implied volatility, another that shows the top 20 put/call ratios (suggesting negative sentiment) and yet another that lists the top 20 call/put ratios (suggesting positive sentiment).

IB has also given options traders the ability to enter options limit prices in volatility terms as well as price using its VolTrader, which is a new function in its software application, Traders WorkStation (TWS). You specify the option volatility and TWS calculates the limit price. When you enable volatility trading, the bid and ask values are displayed as volatility instead of price. You can also set up dynamic management of these volatility orders, under which TWS updates the limit price based on movements in the underlying price, canceling an order if the underlying price breaks through a high or low price range the user has specified.

Another interesting—albeit complicated—trading strategy automated in a recent update of TWS is called Exchange of Futures for Physical, which allows the swap of a long or short stock position for a corresponding one using single stock futures (futures contracts on individual stocks). In effect, the EFP strategy allows the user to reduce his margin costs, which have been rising of late along with other borrowing rates. Investors buying stocks on margin usually pay rates set by one broker. But the rate built into a single-stock future is often lower because it’s competitively quoted by various firms. IB is the only brokerage that allows trading of EFPs online, says Executive Vice President Steve Sanders.

FIDELITY INVESTMENTS (http://www.fidelity.com) has rolled out an update to its strategic trading application, Wealth-Lab Pro, which includes the integration of 10 years of historical macroeconomic data, such as gross domestic product and the consumer-price index, into the program’s modeling capabilities. Wealth-Lab Pro, introduced last year to Fidelity customers, allows active traders to create, back test and execute customized trading strategies. This new functionality is intended to enable traders to create their own trading systems keyed to the government’s release of 20 different economic figures.

Wealth-Lab Pro has also added Trend-line trading, which, among other things, lets the user set trade alerts that can be triggered when prices cross above or below a drawn trend line.

Wealth-Lab Pro is free to Fidelity customers who make 120 or more trades per year and have $25,000 or more in assets. Those with over $1 million in household accounts at Fidelity also qualify for the active trading tools and commissions of $8 per transaction for stocks.

AS THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY of Hurricane Katrina looms, Intuit has released its Quicken Home Inventory Manager (http://www.intuit.com), which offers a way for homeowners to document their possessions. Intuit’s personal finance program, Quicken, includes a text-based home inventory module, but that allows the user only to type in descriptions and values.

The new Home Inventory Manager, however, lets you attach detailed documentation—sales receipts, warranty records and photographs—to your records. If you purchased an item online, the electronic receipt from the vendor can be included, among other new capabilities.

Retailing for $29.99, the system integrates with Quicken to calculate your net worth. You can also subscribe to Quicken’s online backup service, which starts at $9.99 per year, so that you have a reliable copy of the file in case the computer you used to create it is destroyed.

FOLIOFN (http://www.FOLIOfn.com), which allows customers to trade baskets of stocks on a dollar basis, rather than a share basis, is adding 2,000 mid- and low-cap stocks to those that can be traded during two daily “windows” at relatively low cost. These stocks can be found under the “Tier 2” designation, which also includes many exchange-traded funds. Once it’s fully implemented, Tier 2 will increase the universe of securities that you can window- trade to more than 5,500.

Users, who pay a monthly fee ranging from $19.95 to $39.95, can customize any folio to meet preferences. Trading Tier 2 stocks will incur added fees of up to $2.95-$5.95 per transaction for most of FOLIOfn’s various membership plans.

Published in Barrons, August 28, 2006