Net stock trading fails to get results

John Steffens, vice chairman of Merrill Lynch, has slammed Internet stock dealing for failing to get results.

Steffens spoke out at PC Expo in New York, saying that the Internet is not able to give the same detailed and experienced advice that financial advisors can. As a result they tend to make too many investments, too often, which reduces profits, he said.

With the rise of Internet brokers, like US-based Charles Schwab, more people are using the Net to choose which stocks to buy, bypassing the traditional financial advisor. Steffens claimed that Net investors work on different criteria not based on knowledge and experience.

A spokesman at Charles Swab rebuffed Steffens' claims. "The idea that everyone who uses the Internet for this kind of commerce is inexperienced is ridiculous," he said. "The Internet bypasses the black box of Wall Street which the traditional brockerages don't want. They don't want people to be empowered with the tools and information to know what they know and so demystify the whole process."

To the suggestion that online trading is reducing the demand for stockbrockers, the spokesman said: "Investors want to be able to use technology and have access to people for the more sophisticated queries, that need will never change, there is no reason why traditional and online trading can't co-exist."