As part of an ongoing commitment to helping its clients become more successful investors, Charles Schwab (NASDAQ:SCHW) today officially launched an online community focused on its active trader clients.
The Schwab Trading Community is an online social network where Schwab clients can:
- Participate in timely discussions on both short and long-term investing topics
- Swap information, ideas and trading experiences
- Connect with other traders to make trading more fun by learning from each other
- Gain access to Schwab and third party trading experts both informally and via a series of blogs, tutorials and live webinars
"Schwab is pleased to bring the community-building and educational benefits of virtual communities to our active traders," said Richard Levine, vice president of Charles Schwab Active Trading Services. "Schwab's online community is a clients-only forum, specifically for people who want to learn from each other as well as from notable experts in the field. It's a place for serious investors who want to discuss strategies and tactics that can help them become better traders."
Using advanced technology, Schwab's online trading community is easy to use, giving traders quick access to blogs, topical discussions and live webinars. It is organized by topic so members can quickly find discussions that are of interest to them. To foster discussions amongst traders with similar trading styles and strategies, members are asked to create user profiles so that others can get a better sense of whom they are communicating with. Participants also have the ability to rate other members' feedback. Schwab encourages open discussion and monitors the community to optimize the client experience.
Additionally, Schwab's site offers some unique benefits to traders. Users can customize the community with a personalized homepage for quick access to the features and content they find most interesting. They can also take advantage of a robust program of content including webcasts by Schwab and third party industry-renowned experts discussing current market trends as well as, tutorials and live webinannars on trading topics like "Top Risk Management Strategies for Volatile Markets" and "The Latest on Technical Analysis Tools." Finally, the online community gives traders who attend Schwab's over 2000 "offline" live regional events and in-branch seminars a place to continue conversations online with other traders and Schwab experts.
In a recent independent report, "The Social Technographics Profile of Investors," Forrester Research noted that investors who trade online are more likely to use social networks than the general population. In another recent report, "US Online Trading Forecast: 2006 to 2011," Forrester projects that by 2011, 12 million US households will be trading online - a 48% increase over 2006.
Schwab's online community is open only to Schwab active trading clients (defined as those who make at least 36 trades per year), so members can interact with others who share a passion for trading. "We strongly believe the rich quality of the dialogue cannot be duplicated anywhere else," added Levine.