Part 2 : The industry

And what is Sloan Securities' particular expertise and service focus? Why did you choose to go in this direction?
Active individual traders, Online Self-Directed Pension Plans, Online Institutional Trading, both domestic and international - these are the areas of our expertise. For active individual traders we have attractive margin rates, fast execution, very reliable systems and excellent customer services. The active trader knows these are the factors that help them make money.

We also chose to specialize in two services that set us apart from other online firms. The first is our Online Self-Directed Pension Plans through which companies as small as one person up to virtually any size can offer employees the choice to purchase individual securities online, as well as mutual fund investment choices in their pension plan.

We customize the plan for the particular company and often utilize 401K's, Profit-Sharing Plans, SEP's, Defined Benefit Plans, Keoghs and Simple IRA's. A five person company can have a plan where three employees invest solely in mutual funds and the other two buy individual stocks online in the plan - employees love it! The Online Self-Directed Pension Plans are very popular and will continue to grow fast.

Our other area of specialization is that we provide trading services to Domestic & International Institutions, such as money managers, mutual funds, banks, large pension plans, and insurance companies. As an online firm, our costs are low and we pass this on to our institutional clients. We can execute large block trades of hundreds of thousands of shares, or just two shares in a trade. Our flexibility sets us apart in the online world.

We chose to go in these directions because the combination of technology, services, and market knowledge enables us to be a leader in these areas - and help our clients make more money! That's the objective.

Online investment has been one of the success stories of the Internet, but not without a few hiccups, such as the financial problems day traders have run into, and especially the service outages at online brokerage sites. Is account accessibility and site availability a real problem or just a media scare?
Account accessibility and site availability are issues, but mainly just for the largest online firms - they have that issue. Online firms like SloanSecurities.com have plenty of capacity and are excellent choices for investors who may be concerned about these issues.

If I was intending to run some investments online, what are the kind of things I should be looking for in a reliable online brokerage?
Make sure they answer their phones! Other questions might be; does the online firm send documents promptly and respond promptly to email inquiries? Is the website easy to navigate? Can you click on Trade Now and Open Account from almost any page?

Elsewhere, you've predicted a strong future for online trading. What factors do you think will drive the growth of online investing, and will new digital signature legislation play an important role?
Online investing is really easy to do. Once you fill out a form online and after e-signatures are accepted, all an investor has to do is send money to fund the account. I will be a speaker on a panel about e-signatures in November in New York City at the Annual American Conference Institute.

At SloanSecurities.com we are thrilled to be a "player" in the online investing industry as it continues to grow and provide online investing services to individuals, companies and institutions worldwide.