SPI (Sanlam Private Investments) today launched Sanlam iTrade, an online trading portal, giving investors who thrive on the adrenaline rush of trading on the Internet a new outlet for playing the market. According to Danil Kriel, chief executive officer of SPI, Sanlam iTrade aims to capture 20% of the online trading market share within three years - thereby proving to be a worthy competitor to other players in the industry and one of which they should take note. This venture also makes Sanlam the first financial services group in the South African life insurance industry to create such a portal.
Kriel explains that Sanlam iTrade forms part of SPI's strategy to become the leading private client investment manager and stockbroker, while complementing the Sanlam group's intent to grow to be South Africa's leading diversified financial services group. "As the popularity of online trading grows, we are taking advantage of every opportunity to provide our clients with the most advanced technology available in order to deliver an exceptional online trading experience," he says.
According to Gerhard Lampen, head of Online Trading at SPI and designer of the portal, Sanlam iTrade will offer investors an exclusive feature not available from the other share trading portals. "We will be the first in South Africa to provide clients with the ability to see all the shares of an index on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) as well as their watch-lists and portfolios by means of MAPS, an interactive, multi-dimensional tool to view and understand multiple shares at a glance.
"This is a very useful tool to monitor your portfolio or the market as a whole. Multiple shares are represented on a single page with price movements reflected in colour shades of green for up and shades of red for down. Without having to scroll through a whole table of share price movements, with MAPS investors are able to see at a glance where the big movements in the market are occurring. Detailed price information and direct links to a shares important data and chart are also available with one mouse-click."
Other features include consensus broker forecasts - South Africa's top brokers are polled for their three-year forecast of more than 100 shares listed on the JSE. This poll will indicate whether a share should be bought, held or sold according to their views. Lampen says clients will be able to do their own technical analyses and thoroughly research any share on the JSE.
SPI realises the importance of nurturing its own market and for this reason Sanlam iTrade has a learning centre, which has training material supplemented with courses to empower existing clients to successfully manage their portfolios and attract potential new investors.
All these features and many more are available to investors who register with Sanlam iTrade for only R50 a month. They will also enjoy very low broking fees. For more information visit www.sanlamitrade.co.za.
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