Online Broker TradeStation To Add Securities Lending

TradeStation Group Inc. (TRAD) said it will add securities-lending services in the first quarter as the online brokerage tries to improve business by widening its range of offerings.

It will be started up and led by Robert Sackett, who is leaving his post as a managing director at Citigroup Inc.'s (C) global markets division. He has more than 15 years of securities lending experience at Citi and its predecessors.

Chief Executive Salomon Sredni called securities lending "a critical component of our plan to build a first-class prime brokerage offering to small and mid-sized hedge funds and other buy-side traders who can no longer receive important prime brokerage services directly from the large firms."

Online brokerages have seen volume and transaction fees weaken recently amid a decline in stock market activity, coming off of boosted year earlier levels as the market recovered from the financial crisis. TradeStation has said it expects to see results improve over the next few years as more traders seek services outside of traditional big Wall Street firms.

Shares of TradeStation closed at $6.50 on Monday and were inactive premarket. The stock has fallen 18% so far this year.

-By Nathan Becker, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2855; [e-mail]