DÜSSELDORF. Online brokers, home-or cyberbankers. That's what the new investor generation likes to be called. With pride they tell you, that their last visit to a bank was months ago and that they've seen their customer service representative just once, when opening the account. They even claim to settle their stock-exchange transactions via the Internet. A pioneer-spirit is notable, some observers even speak of a goldrush.
The Internet with ist presumed 35 million participants is working hard to reform the way people work and think around the globe. Even business people and economic experts in Germany can no longer close their eyes to this development, and that is one of the reasons to carry the discussion about commercialisation and yield potentials to be gained via the internet further. This was made possible more than anything by applications like the World Wide Web (in short Web) and the easier and easier accessibility which is by now being offered by just about all online-services (T-Online, CompuServe, AOL und MSN).
Additionally, surfing in a data-net of these dimensions is simply fascinating. Equipped with such communication- and information-media, more and more stock-exchange transactions will be carried out via the Internet in the future.
The internet offers a daily increasing amount of information interesting and valuable for investors most of them still free of charge. Among them we find such reputed trading firms as J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman & Sachs international banks like Citibank, Barclay's or Wells Fargo. Even some German institutes have dared to make this, for Germany, revolutionary step.
Leading them all, the Deutsche Bank with ist subsidiaries Bank 24, DWS and Deutsche Bauspar AG is presenting itself in the Internet. The Dresdner-Bank subsidiaries Diri and DIT, the Hypobank, Consors and the Direkt Anlage Bank are also present in the net. Hoever, the by far most interesting service is offered by the private bank Gries & Heissel from Berlin, which one can find under http://www.guh.de/home. After the Landesgirokasse Stuttgart, the West LB and the Kreissparkasse Köln, civil government institutions have entered into the virtual age.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is the first Futures-exchange in the Web. However, just like at the Liffe, Europ's most important Futures-market, one can not carry out transactions here. Both exchanges want to expand their presence in the Internet considerably in the near future and offer presently a large amount of rates and market-surveys free of charge.
Free of charge, but time-elapsed exchange rates are awaiting the data-surfer for example at Security APL and QuoteCom. Security APL is being offered by a Chicago stock-broker, listing stock-exchange rates and dealing in over 6000 different securities. QuoteCom is one of the most known offers of exchange-information. (http://www.quote.com)
A complete market-survey with data pertaining to long-term government bonds, the most important currency-crossrates, market indicators and various Intraday-charts of important market indicators can be found by the home-broker at Andys Screenshot. This valuable collection of information is available once a day at 2 p.m. EST and is also free of charge. (http://www.finacor.chi.il.us/bonds/andy/andy.htm). The Rich Financial Group offers investment news online and a section concerning Managed Money for Commodity Trading Advisors (CTA's) under http://www.ino.com.
Another interesting application-area in the Web are the virtual bookshops, for example JF Lehmann in Berlin (http://www.lob.de). There you can select and order the desired titles about the Internet. The books are then being sent to your home the old fashioned way. Blackwell publishers, Harper Collins, Harvard Business School Publishing, Richard D Irvin, McGraw Hill and John Wiley & Sons are also present in the Internet. One can reach these publishing houses e.g. via the Internet-server of the Ohio State University.
Furthermore, the Internet connection offers free of charge access to libraries and archives of universities renowned around the world, and, of course, their economic faculties. In Germany, the Institute for business management of money economics of the Göttingen university deserves high attention. Assistance and document-collections of this type are not just extremely useful for Internet-beginners.
Online-books and essays about risk-management, investment analysis and investments are to be found as well as complete study-courses and training courses regarding stock-exchanges and speculations. Barron's Business Week, The Economist, Euromoney Financial World, Harvard Business Review and the renowned Wall Street Journal are the suppliers here.
Multi-medial and computer assisted teaching programs stock-exchange games and market-simulations, videos about financial themes and online-courses are available as well as power-point-files which can be downloaded onto your PC at home in order to inspire the generation of own presentations.
Especially inexperienced "Interneters" are advised to connect to the servers Edgar or Yahoo. Via these services, he can then obtain access to economic indicators, data regarding investment-funds, international market reports, securities- and rates information, investment strategies and tips, scientific essays about the capital market and much more.
Generally the rule applies to enter search-terminology having something to do with business or stock-exchanges via a browser. The result is breathtaking every time and every time new services are available.
Published in:
Handelsblatt
08.01.96, Page 40
translated by GuH Bankensysteme, Berlin