News & Chatter
Important reminder that on Friday, April 22, 2011 the U.S. trading markets will be closed for holiday to celebrate Good Friday.
For a complete list of U.S. market holidays in 2011 see this post: List of U.S. Trading Holidays for 2011.
Important reminder that on Monday, February 21, 2011 the U.S. stock market equities and options markets will be closed for holiday to celebrate President’s Day (sometimes known as George Washington’s birthday).
For a complete list of U.S. market holidays during 2011 see this post: List of U.S. Trading Holidays for 2011.
A list of dates the U.S. stock and options markets are closed.
U.S. Equity and Options Markets Holiday Schedule
| Date | Holiday | U.S Equity Markets | U.S Options Markets |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 17 | Martin Luther King, Jr. Day | Closed | Closed |
| February 21 | Presidents’ Day | Closed | Closed |
| April 22 | Good Friday | Closed | Closed |
| May 30 | Memorial Day | Closed | Closed |
| July 4 | Independence Day | Closed | Closed |
| September 5 | Labor Day | Closed | Closed |
| November 24 | Thanksgiving Day | Closed | Closed |
| November 25 | Early Market Close* | TBA | Equity Options (Narrow Based) Closes at 1:00 p.m. World Currency Options Closes at 1:00 p.m. Broad Based Index Options Closes at 1:15 p.m. |
| December 26 | Christmas Day (observed) | Closed | Closed |
I’ve been reading about Zecco for a few months now. They have created a free trading zone. This “free trading” zone means Zecco traders will pay no – zero – $0.00 – commissions to buy and sell stocks. Commission free trading for everyone is now available, in Web 2.0 style.
The answer is pretty simple. Zecco makes money through 2 major revenue streams: online advertisements and interest from margin accounts.
Zecco has built up a community area on their site with forums covering all topics of trading, investing, finance, and business, and an area for bloggers and blog readers including commentary on trading, investing, and analysis.
Zecco also realizes interest from margin loans to stock traders is much more valuable income than trading commissions fees. While commissions fees are great income, they are substituting commissions fee income with advertising income. And they’re still holding on the very valuable interest fees attached to trading stocks on margin.
You didn’t think you’d get 0% margin rates, did you?
Yes, I am in the process of setting up a Zecco.com $0 commission trading account. I have to fill out forms and fax, as well as mail, the documents to Zecco. In two weeks I should be making my first trade there.
With Zecco, I am going to grow my dividend and value holdings. With free trading, I can reinvest my dividend payments easily, no matter how little cash I am reinvesting. Free online stock trading is very interesting to me and I am still formulating new strategies to take advantage of no commissions fees.
Forbes has announced the “Forbes 400 Richest Americans” which they call “The Billionaires’ Club”. Everyone listed in this years Forbes 400 is a billionaire. That’s $1,000,000,000.
Here’s a snippet from the Forbes article at Yahoo:
This year, for the first time, everyone on The Forbes 400 has at least $1 billion. The collective net worth of the nation’s wealthiest climbed $120 billion, to $1.25 trillion.
Once again the biggest gainer is casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, with a net worth up $9 billion. Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands stock is up 125 percent since its public offering in December 2004. He has made almost $1 million an hour since the 2004 Forbes 400 was published.
Another big gainer is Warren Buffett, who added $6 billion. That wealth, and the rest of what he has accumulated as a value investor, will be given away, mostly to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
(from yahoo)
A trader I know posted this on a forum: “That’s just wrong, $1 million an hour. Half the world is starving, living on less than $3 a day, and some unknown fool is making a million US dollars an hour.”
The trader quickly added: “Adelson, if you’re reading this, give me an hour!”
I do not think we should simply take away some of this money these billionaires’ have worked hard to earn. But I do think there should be an additional tax on the super rich, such as these Forbes 400 billionaires. Any percentage tax on billions of dollars would mean tens of millions available to feed the hungry half of the world. I would be happy with this “special tax”, but I am biased since I do not have a billion dollars.
