A group of 16 Hong Kong brokers conducting wireless stock trading on Palm handheld devices are reporting an 80% improvement in productivity since the system was introduced in April.
The mBroker system was implemented by Heracle Technologies and provides brokerage firms and individual investors with a secure trading platform where stock information can be remotely accessed, and stock trading activities can be transacted from Palm handhelds.
MBroker is backed by Mobile e-Cert security of Hongkong Post and claims to be the world's first and only wireless digital certificate for community-wide use. The devices employ PKI technology developed by Canadian firm Diversinet to scramble and authenticate transactions as they are passed through the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited's order routing gateway and on to the designated brokerage system. Such a transaction now takes an average of six seconds to complete, compared with the one-minute median for telephone-based trading via stock agents.
Brokerages say the solution has helped to sharpen their transaction efficiency, and freed up agents' to offer more value-adding investment advice to clients.
Andy Yeung, operational manager of GLS Securities, comments: "This solution has certainly modernised the way the stock trading industry conducts its business in Hong Kong and helps brokerages stay competitive. Agents can now focus on providing value-added personal investment consultation to their customers, as opposed to spending time re-inputting data for order-processing."