2004 Press Releases
Reuters.com And FOLIOfn To Offer Reuters Select Folios
05/11/2004
VIENNA, Virginia – FOLIOfn, Inc., the innovative online brokerage firm and financial services technology provider, today announced it has teamed up with Reuters.com to market Reuters Select Folios—investment portfolios that combine the benefits of Reuters.com’s stock screening expertise with FOLIOfn’s low-cost, fractional shares trading and portfolio management technology. The Folios, which are available exclusively through FOLIOfn at www.foliofn.com, for the first time make it practical for all investors to cost-effectively implement complete portfolio strategies based on independent investment research.
Reuters Select Folios consist of eight stock selection models applied to the FOLIOfn universe of more than 4,000 tradable securities. Reuters.com will provide regular updates for the model Folios—each containing approximately 35 to 50 securities that represent various investment styles, such as “Favored Value Plays” and “Relative Growth”. The Reuters Select Folios will be maintained in a premium section of FOLIOfn’s retail brokerage site and also will be accessible via links from the Reuters.com site (www.reuters.com). Investors who become FOLIOfn members can access the premium area of the site, including all eight model Folios and commentary outlining the strategy and screening criteria for each Folio, for a $99 annual fee.
“The FOLIOfn service will enable investors to simply, instantly and cost effectively make full advantage of our stock screens and research,” said Azhar Rafee, Global Head of Reuters.com. “This will be a very economical way for investors—large and small—to pursue a true, model-based investing strategy with complete, diversified portfolios,” he added.
FOLIOfn’s patented, Web-based brokerage technology will make buying and owning Reuters Select Folios affordable and easy. The technology permits buying and selling fractions of shares, allowing investors to buy these complete portfolios with no minimum investment. It also enables very low-cost trading (subscription plans for FOLIOfn members begin at 200 trades per month for $19.95 per month or $199 per year), allowing the portfolios to be very inexpensively updated as models change. Investors can “resynch” their Folios to the updated models with just a few mouse clicks. They also can customize the portfolios, buying or selling individual securities at any time.
“The combination of models based on Reuters.com screens with direct ownership of the individual securities in the portfolio provides tremendous advantages for investors,” said FOLIOfn Chairman and CEO Steven M.H. Wallman. “They have complete transparency of their holdings and costs. They can exclude specific securities or sectors from their portfolio that they may already own through other investments. They also can control when capital gains and losses are taken and, as a result, they can control their tax consequences.
“Financial advisors use our technology platform to administer separately managed accounts that provide these benefits for their clients,” Wallman said. “It’s a logical next step to use the same platform to empower self-directed investors to implement a strategy of this kind.”
The Reuters Select Folios will provide an active complement to FOLIOfn’s Ready-to-Go Folios, a group of more than 75 portfolios based primarily on indices and other quantitative measures that the brokerage firm makes available to its clients at no additional cost. All Folios offered by FOLIOfn are portfolios of individual securities, each of which is directly owned and capable of being traded by the investor at any time. Investors can modify model Folios or create their own. FOLIOfn offers no recommendations or advice, but provides a brokerage platform that allows investors to efficiently use the advice and recommendations of others.
About Folio Investing
Folio Investing, a division of FOLIOfn Investments, Inc., is an online brokerage that enables investors to manage stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds as integrated investment portfolios called “Folios” that deliver better control, greater transparency, and lower cost. Investors can create their own Folios, much like creating personalized ETFs or mutual funds, or invest in over 100 Ready-to-Go Folios representing market indices, sectors, geographical regions, target dates, and more. The Folio Unlimited Plan features unlimited commission-free trading in twice-daily windows for only $29 a month or $290 a year. Ready-to-Go Folios can be managed or unmanaged, are not registered investment companies, and are offered by FOLIOfn Investments, Inc., a registered broker-dealer. FOLIOfn Investments, Inc. does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. FOLIOfn Investments, Inc., is a member of FINRA/SIPC.