We have not wavered in our enthusiasm. For now, iBolsa strictly provides for the trading of some 10,000 different stocks in the U.S., claiming this country's markets offer greater opportunity than trading in Latin American stocks. Approximately 60 percent of iBolsa's traffic is from the U.S., with the remaining coming primarily from Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia. We always thought the big opportunity was going to be in bringing Latin customers to the U.S. market. Another advantage is more stringent U.S. regulations protect small investors, he says.
Size also makes the U.S. market more alluring.
Brazil's stock market, Latin America's largest, is double the size of Mexico's, which is four times larger than Argentina's, which has Latin America's third largest economy. But the daily trades in Brazil's market represent only a small fraction of the trades in the U.S. market. Latin banks realize that in order to make online trading more attractive they need to educate consumers The largest barrier to stock trading in Brazil is its novelty for individual investors. We didn't even have a retail stock market in Brazil. The market is still in its infancy and the most important thing is to educate users now, so we want to make it accessible to people who are just trying out the market.