The Omaha brokerage company Ameritrade Holding Corp. said Friday that its average daily May trading volume fell 5% from April, to 133,000.
Some said the decline is further argument in favor of consolidation within online brokerages. Ameritrade is discussing a merger with Toronto-Dominion Bank's TD Waterhouse Group Inc. but is also being wooed by E-Trade Financial Corp. of New York.
Industry watchers have said that trading activity is insufficient to support so many Internet brokerages, and that consolidation is likely.
The chief marketing officers of all three companies participated in a panel discussion last week at a New York conference hosted by Forrester Research Inc., though they would not offer specifics on the negotiations.
Janet Hawkins of TD Waterhouse said, "Consolidation is coming, and we're on record as wanting to be a player." And Ameritrade's Anne L. Nelson said that the industry must " make itself very, very efficient."
Nicholas A. Utton of E-Trade said the business is "a scale game." The cost of acquiring customers "is a number that we live and die by every day." His company has not yet reported May numbers, but fluctuations in trading volume are often consistent for most Web brokers.
