AP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Local stock brokerage DA Market Securities rolled out on Monday an online trading portal that would tap an emerging class of retail investors, especially young people who have excess savings and could use Internet-based platforms.
DA Market’s online trading platform via www.i-trade.ph is powered by PSETradex, an Internet-based trading management system developed by the Philippine Stock Exchange that allows users to trade shares of stock, monitor and manage their stock portfolio, and get real-time market information.
It is the fifth stock brokerage to debut on online trading via PSETradex, which makes it easier and more cost-effective for brokers like DA Market Securities to offer online trading services without having to spend a lot to develop its own infrastructure.
“It’s great to have a new player get into the online space,” PSE president Hans Sicat said in a press briefing on Monday, noting that affordable access to investment outlets like equities has become a common challenge for many emerging markets. But the good news, according to Sicat, is that the Philippines is “probably at the forefront of trying to be active in this space,” given a demographic base that’s skewed to the younger age segment.
Sicat said the entry of younger people into the equities market would help address the “imbalance” – referring to the meager (less than 1 percent) portion of the population that invests in the stock market – and help create a critical mass of stock market investors.
“The online business is inherent to any stock brokerage in the future. Without it you can’t expand your client base,” said Nestor Aguila, DA Market chairman.
DA Market, according to Aguila, is a stock brokerage that traces its roots in Pampanga, where its principal investors also operate the Rural Bank of Florida. On the education side, he said the stock brokerage would also work with affiliate Mary the Queen College on financial literacy campaigns.
With DA Market just entering the online trading space, Aguila said its focus would be to tap a new breed of investors instead of attempting to grab market share from other stock brokers that have arrived much earlier in the business.
In Pampanga, for instance, while previous generations were mostly overseas Filipino workers, the newer generations were better educated and showing increase in spending power. He said DA would target young people with at least P100,000 to spare to begin a stock market portfolio.
As such, he said DA Market had beefed up its research capability, gone 24/7 in producing market-moving alerts via social media (through micro-blogging site Twitter) and joining the PSE’s roadshows. The firm’s research team is led by Nisha Alicer.
Aguila said that for 2014, DA Market’s investment philosphy would be to beat bond and money market rates and help clients post a return of at least 6 percent.
On PSE index outlook, Alicer said DA Market saw a base case scenario of 7,000 for this year.
Aguila said the local stock market has entered the fifth wave of the Elliot Wave, the “craziest” of all five waves. By this time, he said, the savvy investors would have already made money and any incremental earnings would be a bonus. “But it’s fun if you can trade it,” he said.
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