Stockwhiz.com Gains More Marketshare With New Name

A conflict over a branding strategy led Stockwhiz.com to change its name to Bulltrade Corp., and to start up a new corresponding Web site. But instead of hurting the company, Bulltrade officials said the move has actually helped its subscriber numbers.

When it started operations last February, Stockwhiz.com provided its members with a 28 percent gain in portfolios during its first month, company officials said. But even though it delivered overall portfolio gains of 55 percent, it could not expand its business.

The reason? A stock market screening software product called "Stockwiz" —which has a US registered trademark —from Seattle-based I-soft.

So Stockwhiz.com decided to change its name and corresponding Web site to Bulltrade Corp. The company also changed its real-world location, in moving from Davis, California to the heart of Silicon Valley in Mountain View.

When Web surfers now contact http: //www.stockwhiz.com, they will see: "You have reached an intersection on the information superhighway. This page at one time belonged to Stock-whiz Inc. There was some confusion between the Stockwhiz On-Line stock newsletter, produced by Stockwhiz Inc., and the stock market screening software 'Stockwiz' which is a product produced by I-soft Inc. Stockwhiz Inc. has therefore changed their name to Bulltrade Corp. and has given this domain over to I-soft inc."

Following the message, hyperlinks are given to Stockwhiz’s new Bulltrade Web site (http://www.bulltrade.com), and I-soft’s StockWiz Web site (http://www.stockwiz.com).

After Stockwhiz’s change to Bulltrade, "It’s almost as though this move has created a whole new company," said Michael Neves, director of marketing and sales of Bulltrade. Neves, who also co-founded the stock newsletter, said that the change has also helped business: "In the last two months our customer base has increased ten-fold," he said.

Bulltrade provides members with a newsletter before each market session that outlines a short-term and long-term portfolio, as well as views on the current market conditions and issues that are relevant to successful trading. The newsletter is currently delivered via e-mail, but soon will be available at Bulltrade’s site, officials said. Bulltrade’s publication is available for $20 per month. Financial forums are also available at the Web site.

(Contact: BullTrade Corp., 650-949-5989)