TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. in Omaha fired the latest salvo in the online brokerage fee-cutting wars Monday, offering a flat rate of $9.99 for all equity trades, regardless of the number of shares traded or the order type, and dropping other fees.
It said that forgoing account maintenance and IRA fees, as well as planned spending on technology, would reduce revenue by $100 million in the next fiscal year. Its stock price took a hit Monday despite the announcement of a big rise in profit for its second fiscal quarter, ended March 31.
TD Ameritrade, which was formed in January when Ameritrade closed its deal for the TD Waterhouse USA unit of Toronto-Dominion Bank, said profit rose to $173 million, from $77 million a year earlier.
Revenue more than doubled, to $497.2 million, and average daily client trades in the quarter rose 52%, to 254,000. Client assets at March 31 were $263 billion, up from $76 billion.
