| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : MAY 24, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| COVER STORY
Testing the Waters MATT HARRIS: Entrepreneur Matt Harris thrives on risk. In 1996, he quit a $50,000-a-year job managing Warner Bros. stores on the West Coast to devote his energy to investing. In 1998, he launched ExamWeb, an Internet company that helps students prepare for standardized tests online. The Net has been a major focus of the 30-year-old entrepreneur's stock trading, too. After falling 18% in 1997, his portfolio rebounded last year after he discovered Internet stocks. Thanks to leverage, the value of the assets in one tech and Net stock account has zoomed 600%, to about $110,000, since October. To research the stocks and options he trades an average of three times a week, Harris relies on Yahoo! Finance and EDGAR Online. He splits his business between four brokers, saying ''each has pros and cons.'' While he likes Discover Brokerage's detailed options listings, he got into his first initial public offering on Mar. 26--snaring 100 shares of Autobytel ABTL through Wit Capital. Still, more than half of Harris' nest egg is in blue chips, including Coca-Cola KO and Merck MRK at a full-service broker, Prudential Securities. Harris likes that account in part because his broker can serve as a financial reference with banks. But those stocks are strictly buy-and-hold: ''It would cost me a fortune to trade stocks there.'' By Anne Tergesen _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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 Your Guide to Online Investing COVER IMAGE: Our Guide to Online Investing CHART: The Biggest Online Brokers TABLE: Broker Scoreboards TABLE: Online Brokers That Meet Your Needs Gotta Do the Legwork ``A Diversity of Thought'' Testing the Waters Commentary: Why Old-Line Firms Need New Online Tricks TABLE: Full-Service Dream The Right Tools for the Right Trades Street.Cop TABLE: Smart Investing on the Web TABLE: Web Resources for Online Investors Rocket Science Made Simple TABLE: Quant for a Day How to Seal a Great Bond Deal TABLE: Where to Buy...And Get Info What to Read: The Good, the Bad, and the Terrible TABLE: Wired-Up Investing Books Investor Beware of Web Talk TABLE: Separating Fact from Fiction TABLE: Cross Checkers Smells Fishy? Tell the SEC This EDGAR Is a Real Know-It-All TABLE: Searching the SEC Commentary: Analyst Calls: Let Investors Listen TABLE: Calling All Netizens The Barker Portfolio: A Battle Plan for Accidental Investors Inside Wall Street: Wells Fargo Online CHART: The Rise Trails Other Banks Inside Wall Street: Bidding for 3COM? CHART: Prior Takeovers Fizzled Out Inside Wall Street: A TV-To-Net Linkup CHART: ACTV's Rise Is Due to E-Commerce INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online | |||
