| 29 July 2009

Scottrade announced today the launch of a new education center for investors. The content is free and available to anyone, not just Scottrade account holders. According to Scottrade, more than 2,000 articles and tools are already available on the site.

We took a look at the content this morning and can confirm that they're offering quite a comprehensive selection of articles covering all the core topics you might expect. They offer the basic sort of "definitional" content, such as account types and investment products. But they also offer some more advanced topics. For example, in the ETF category you can learn about diversification, leverage and sector rotation.

There's an ask-the-expert section with news and tips such as an article about bond laddering from their fixed-income specialist, Mike Shamia. We also noticed the typical financial calculators, how-to lessons and online tutorials as well as access to a schedule of in-person events held at Scottrade's branches.

Kevin Dodson oversees all of Scottrade's education. In a statement he said, “We’ve pulled back the curtain to provide everyone – not only our current customer base – with information they can use to become better, more educated investors.”

It's no secret that we're a big fan of education and we're glad to see Scottrade making their efforts available to everyone, rather than offering it only as an exclusive draw for account holders. While we don't think this move will turn Scottrade.com into a destination Web site, it's smart to offer more free content to serve as a draw for potential new accounts. We've seen similar strategies from tradeMONSTER, for example, when they made their new trading application available for anyone to test drive. It's a good move and we'll keep an eye on the developments.