We use all the latest firewall technology. One company and its top executive were cited for helping would-be investors and then profiting from the deal. The executive held several thousand shares in the company and then sold the shares before investors realized the company s product was worthless. The SEC alleged this essentially was a fraud because no bonds ever existed and AIF had no business operations or assets. Most investors that choose an online broker should be choosing more than technology, says Julio Gomez, president of Gomez Advisors, a Boston-based consulting firm specializing in Internet brokerage.
Folks still have to exercise some judgments.
They re going to be exposed to a lot more ideas and quite frankly, a lot more bad ideas. There s no replacement for sound investment practices, whether it s relying on a financial professional or doing your homework. Sheila Slevin, assistant director in the SEC s Division of Market Regulation, sees a shift in technology s role in online investment. Pre-Internet, the people who wanted to use technology to do a securities business were professionals, people with experience in the industry who had the contacts and the funding. We try and rein them in and say, 'This is how you do your business legally.