Fidelity Investments Cuts Equity and Option Commissions to $8 Per Trade, Introduces Other New Services for Active Traders.Business Editors BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 29, 2003 Fidelity Investments Fidelity Investments is a group of privately held companies in the financial services industry. It is made up by two independent but closely cooperating companies, Fidelity Management and Research Corporation (FMR Co. today announced $8 online equity and option commissions(1), five-second order execution and seven-day transfer of assets The conveyance of something of value from one person, place, or situation to another. The law recognizes that persons are generally entitled to transfer their assets to whomever they wish and for whatever reason. The most common means of transfer are wills, trusts, and gifts. guarantees, as well as enhancements to its advanced trading platform, Active Trader Pro(TM), all available to its active trader customers. "With the introduction of these institutional-strength offerings, active traders have something not available through many other firms - low commissions, dedicated service and advanced technology - all backed by Fidelity's heritage and reputation as a leading brokerage firm," said Jeff Carney, president, Fidelity Personal Investments. Effective October 1, Fidelity is introducing $8 commissions for online equity and option orders (plus $1.50 per option contract for orders of 1-99 contracts or $1 per contract for orders of 100 or more), a more than 42 percent price reduction on its Gold Level commission schedule(2) previously at $14 per trade. In addition, the requirements to qualify for Gold Level pricing have been reduced to 120 stock, bond or option trades a year and $30,000 in combined household assets or $1 million in total assets (down from 240 stock, bond or option trades and $30,000 in combined household assets or $2 million in total assets), allowing even more customers access to this low pricing, while still benefiting from the vast array of research, trading and monitoring resources available to them. Fidelity also is offering two new service guarantees beginning October 1: five-second order execution at the National Best Bid or Offer (NBBO NBBO National Best Bid and Offer ) or better and seven-day transfer of assets. Fidelity promises five-second, market order executions for S&P 500(R) securities during regular market hours(3), or the trade will be automatically commission-free to all customers, regardless of their trading activity level. As a special offer to its most active traders(4), Fidelity also will help them transfer qualified(5) assets to the company within seven business days when they call 1-800-544-5115, or they will receive their first month's online equity trades commission-free(6). "We have found that active traders are extremely knowledgeable, highly focused investors that expect professional-quality service, which includes constant access to the market and their money as well as instant executions on their trades. Fidelity is responding to the specialized needs of these sophisticated, semi-professional traders with the services they want and how they want them," said Sanjiv Mirchandani, executive vice president, Fidelity Personal Investments. Fidelity also provides a variety of other services, including the company's Active Trader Services Team(7). This team of professional traders has extensive knowledge of complex options strategies, short selling Short Selling The selling of a security that the seller does not own, or any sale that is completed by the delivery of a security borrowed by the seller. Short sellers assume that they will be able to buy the stock at a lower amount than the price at which they sold short. and margin usage, and is available to help the company's most active customers with their individual trading needs. Last fall Fidelity launched its Windows(R)-based trading platform, Active Trader Pro, and has continued to enhance it with a variety of advanced online tools and technology. Among the most recent additions introduced this summer are access to a more than $1.5 trillion inventory pool of short sale liquidity, as well as the ability to do short selling and discretionary orders Discretionary Order An order giving a broker the ability to decide when to buy/sell securities at the best possible price for the customer. Some discretionary orders place restrictive terms to limit the amount of discretion the broker has. as part of the directed trading capabilities. Coming in late October, the company is scheduled to offer Good Til Canceled (GTC GTC See: Good 'til cancelled order GTC See good-till-canceled order (GTC). ) trailing stop Trailing Stop A stop-loss order that is set at a percentage level below (for a long position) the market price. The price is adjusted as the price fluctuates. Notes: This is such a useful tool, yet many fail to use it. loss/limit orders and more robust preset preset Cardiac pacing A parameter of a pacemaker that is programmed permanently when manufactured stock filters based on real-time technical indicators to help traders screen potential investments, among other new features and functionality. During the coming year, Fidelity will continue to enhance the platform and add even more services to meet the complex demands of today's active trader. For more information about Fidelity's Active Trader Services, visit www.fidelity.com/activetrader. Fidelity Investments is one of the world's largest providers of financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. , with custodied assets of $1.6 trillion, including managed assets of $906.0 billion as of August 31, 2003. Fidelity offers investment management, retirement planning Retirement financial planning refers to a collection of systems, methods, and processes which, in their aggregate, support a family unit's (client's) desire to achieve a state of financial independence, such that the need to be gainfully employed is optional. , brokerage, human resources The fancy word for "people." The human resources department within an organization, years ago known as the "personnel department," manages the administrative aspects of the employees. and benefits outsourcing services to 18 million individuals and institutions as well as through 5,500 financial intermediaries Financial intermediaries institution that provide the market function of matching borrowers and lenders or traders. . The firm is the largest mutual fund company in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , the No. 1 provider of workplace retirement savings plans Noun 1. retirement savings plan - a plan for setting aside money to be spent after retirement pension account, pension plan, retirement account, retirement plan, retirement program, retirement savings account , one of the largest mutual fund supermarkets and a leading online brokerage firm. For more information about Fidelity Investments, visit www.fidelity.com. (1) For option orders, a per-contract fee applies. See www.fidelity.com/goto/commissions for details. (2) Household trading activity is based on a rolling, 12-month period. For large trade orders, add $0.01 per share for every share over 1,000. (3) For transactions not executed within five seconds, Fidelity will waive the commission charge on that transaction. Offer limited to Market orders between 100 and 500 shares to buy, sell, or buy to cover stocks listed on the S&P 500 Index. Orders must be entered between 9:45 a.m. and 3:59 p.m. ET on a day when the market is open. Execution speed is calculated from the time Fidelity accepts the order to the time of execution, reported to Fidelity by the executing market center. Eligible orders can be entered on Fidelity.com, Fidelity Active Trader Pro, FAST, wireless devices, or through a Fidelity representative. Short sales, extended hours orders, directed trade orders and certain other transactions excluded. Certain market and systems conditions may impact qualifications for this guarantee. Fidelity reserves the right to restrict or revoke this offer at any time. See www.fidelity.com for more details. (4) Active traders who place at least 120 household trades over a rolling, 12-month period qualify for this special offer. (5) Qualifying transfers of $10,000 or more are limited to Automated Customer Account Transfers Automated Customer Account Transfer (ACAT) For transfers of securities from a non-equity trading account to your equity trading account with your broker. (ACAT ACAT See: Automated Customer Account Transfer ) or DTCeligible securities held in street name at the ACAT-participating delivery firm. (6) Account will receive up to 40 commission-free online equity trades for orders up to 1,000 shares during the subsequent 30 days after the Transfer of Assets is completed. Other fees, such as the SEC order handling fee, still apply. (7) Active traders who place 120 or more stock, bond or option trades a year have access to the Active Trader Services Team. |
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