Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/1999/01/08/rogue_traders_blight_web/

Rogue traders blight Web

Online stock sites need to clean up act

By Tim Richardson

Posted in On-Prem, 8th January 1999 16:09 GMT

Online stock trading in the US could be about to undergo sweeping reform as regulators try and get to grips with the activities of day traders. According to a report in Business Week scores of day trading firms in the US are being investigated by regulators under suspicion of fraud and other irregularities. It's alleged that some day traders -- which account for up to 15 per cent of NASDAQ's daily volume -- are misselling their services to novice investors saying it will make them bundles of cash. Although day traders only make up a small proportion of all online dealers, they are incredibly active in the market. Some market watchers blame them for fuelling the steep rises in the value of technology stocks creating artificially high values. ®