‘Tenby bedroom share deals boom’
WESTERN MAIL - 16/09/03
FORGET the image of the stuffy stockbroker strolling through London in his bowler hat. Malcolm Stacey is a share dealer who works more than 200 miles away from the City in a Pembrokeshire seaside resort. Thanks to the internet, the former radio presenter is offering people the chance to speculate on the stock market courtesy of his company ShareCrazy.com.
The company, which was set up four years ago, is specifically aimed at the ordinary man or woman in the street, who finds the traditional world of the stockbroker world a bit of an alien jungle. But while the Footsie index of top British companies is holding steady, Share Crazy.com is on the up and can now lay claim to being the biggest stockbroker in the country.
Over the past four months it has seen a 25% increase a week in trade and gets 12 million hits a month on its website. It now plans to expand to the USA, as well as launch its own credit card, and may even float on the stock exchange one day.
"It's spread like Friends Reunited, by word of mouth," said Malcolm Stacey at his office in his Georgian house overlooking Tenby harbour yesterday. "The market for us is rocketing at the moment largely because of the tech boom collapse of a few years ago," he said. "Shares in those dot com companies are now worth around 5p and there are ridiculous bargains out there so people are starting to buy again.
"Ordinary people are heading back to the market. They can afford these shares and they realise they can make money out of it." The germ of the company was born several years ago when Mr Stacey, who used to produce Roger Cook's investigative programmes as well as present BBC Radio Four's You and Yours, wrote The Armchair Tycoon. "Because I was a presenter for BBC Radio Four I kept meeting captains of industry, government ministers and top bankers, all those sorts of people, and I decided while I was interviewing them to talk about other things.
"So I would ask them things such as whether they had any share tips, how did they pick their shares? "Let's face it, anyone who is wealthy in this country does not do it on their salary alone. From the Queen downwards they all invest in stocks and shares. They were all very clued up but I was surprised at the advice they gave me. "It wasn't based on balance sheets but it was things such as, always sell when the sun is shining because that's when most people buy shares. "Or always buy in November as shares rocket around Christmas because of the seasonal feel good factor."
By co-incidence his book came out at a time when the stock market was going through its hi-tech boom. It sold extremely well - 10,000 copies in one day - and it's still in print. One of those who bought a copy was Alan Green, a top salesman with the Thomson Directory. He made a fortune over a few months using the book's tips. With the money made he launched the web site ShareCrazy.com and asked Mr Stacey if he wanted to get involved. "The industry was too full of jargon," said Mr Stacey, who is now a director owning 25% of the company and who writes a daily column. "We wanted a web site that was easy for anyone to understand, from dustbin men to taxi drivers. It's a site run by ordinary people, who trade for ordinary people who trade," he said.
"What we really want to see is the downfall of the fat cat stockbroker, they do very little and just take your money. We're proud that it does not take a lot of money to trade shares." As well as providing a round-the-clock trading service, the company has a message board for members to swap advice and warn of pitfalls and, if they want, simply gossip. It also charges just £9 a trade compared to nearer £100 by most major stockbrokers. "We have a lot of fun as well, it's not all heavy stuff," he said. "If people lose a lot of money on a share deal then they get encouraging replies from others. "Most of our members are either students or retired people and some have even become professional share traders. They buy shares in the morning and sell in the afternoon. We have a lot of day traders."
He and his family moved to their historic house in Tenby three years ago and have no regrets. His wife Jo is learning Welsh and while their eldest son is at Greenhill School the two youngest are set to study at the Welsh-medium school, Ysgol Preseli. "We wanted to live by the sea," he said. "We looked for 10 years around the coast of Britain and Tenby was the nicest place we've ever seen."
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