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Revision as of 23:13, 31 August 2006 by 209.144.55.6 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Scottrade is a privately-owned discount retail brokerage firm headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. It is known for its online trading features, low commissions (it advertises that most orders – market orders or limit orders – can be traded for a flat $7.00 commission), and commercials featuring its founder and president, Rodger O. Riney.
Scottrade has 279 local branch offices, and has been given the top "investor satisfaction" award by J.D. Power and Associates six consecutive times.
History
Scottrade was founded in 1980 by Riney as Scottsdale Securities in Scottsdale, Arizona, with two offices, one in Scottsdale and the other in St. Louis. One year later, Scottsdale Securities relocated its headquarters to St. Louis.
In 1996 Scottsdale Securities offered online trading to its customers, under the domain name of www.scottrade.com. It adopted the Scottrade name as its corporate name in 2000.
In 2003, Scottrade launched a new trading platform, called Scottrade Chinese [http://chinese.scottrade.com/}, available to customers in the United States, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Also in August 2003, Scottrade opened its one-millionth customer account. In September, J.D. Power and Associates named Scottrade Highest in Investor Satisfaction With Online Trading Services for an unprecedented fourth consecutive time.
October 2005 brought another J.D. Power and Associates award for Investor Satisfaction, the 6th in a row for Scottrade.
Commercials
Scottrade is known for its commercials featuring Riney as a young man.
The first series featured Riney providing "a little bit extra" when performing lawn services and building a treehouse for his friends.
The current series features Riney using technology to deliver newspapers and helping golfers select the right club.
Community Involvement
Scottrade claims to attract and hire people who care about their customers, coworkers, and community.
Many of the charitable initiatives Scottrade is involved in have been employee-driven. Scottrade employees have led collection drives for members of the military stationed overseas, and adopted families through the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's 100 Neediest Cases.
The firm is also focused in contributing to charitable causes within the St. Louis community, such as participating in the Komen Race for the Cure and the Alzheimer's Association's annual Memory Walk. Scottrade and its employees donate annually to the United Way, the National MS Society, the Special Olympics, the St. Louis Humane Society and the St. Louis Art Museum, just to name a few. Most recently, employees have donated generously to tsunami and hurricane relief, particularly because some of their coworkers lost their homes in the hurricanes.
Current events
In an open letter to Scottrade customers, Riney discussed the recent activity of mergers and acquisitions in the discount brokerage sector. Riney stated that Scottrade is happy being an independent firm and that it has no plans to sell out to another company.
On Wednesday, January 18, 2006 Riney, along with selected Scottrade staff, rang the NASDAQ Stock Market Closing Bell.
In March 2006, Scottrade announced the hiring of Chris X. Moloney as the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for the firm. Moloney, formerly Vice President of Corporate Marketing at Charter Communications in St. Louis, is a widely published author, strategist and keynote speaker on the subjects of customer satisfaction and loyalty.
In April 2006, Scottrade announced that customer assets increased 45% for the first quarter 06 and client volumes rose 49%. According to a press release by Scottrade, it said that customer assets grew to over $51 billion, up from $32.5 billion from the same period last year. The firm's active accounts also grew to 1.48 million, up 28%. In addition, Scottrade opened 12 new branch offices in the United States, a solid 1 per week during the quarter. Since the press release, Scottrade has opened 9 additional locations, bringing their branch total to 271.
Footnotes and references
- "History on a discount brokerage firm" — History (retrieved 12 July 2006)
- "Stock Broker comparison" — JD Powers and Associates(retrieved 12 July 2006)
- "Scottrade Community Involvement" — Community Involvement(retrieved 12 July 2006)
- "Scottrade - Letter from the President" — Open letter from the President (retrieved 28 April 2006)
- "Scottrade Q1 customer assets up 45%" — Q1 News (retrieved 12 July 2006)