It seems every online financial services firm worth its salt is doing it these days. Wednesday became the latest of its kind to offer real-time quotes to its brokerage account holders. Called MarketCaster, the free applet helps customers set up customized lists of stocks and monitor their performance without having to refresh their computer screens. As for the display, the applet allows a user to set up a preferred display scheme with up to 25 data fields.
Investors can also view up to twenty stock symbols per list.
Big enough for firms to create commercials addressing just that. It's been more than a year since Datek Online launched its commercial featuring a young stock broker and a wizened doctor. In fact, research firm Meridian claims that by 2003 there will be close to 8 million users of wireless financial services, most of whom will desire to see them streamed. Finance, are rolling out such services on a steady basis. Just a few weeks ago, MSN MoneyCentral announced that it would offer streaming Webcasts of breaking financial news and market developments.