| 29 December 2009

It's that time of year again -- time for retrospection, time for resolution, and time for a new round of TV ad campaigns. And at a time when derivatives trading has almost completely engulfed the tiny mind of Main Street Americans we look to ShareBuilder to remind us that the pillars of capitalism stand on ownership.

ShareBuilder informs us that they are launching a series of new TV spots called "Owners." The ads implore Main Street Americans to use ShareBuilder, "to invest in the companies they love and want to own." To give you just the encouragement you need, the company is offering ten free investing credits (aka "trades" to most investors) just for signing up. “At ShareBuilder we believe there is an investor in everyone, and that no one should feel buying any stock is beyond their reach,” said Dan Greenshields, President of ShareBuilder.

We have always like ShareBuilder's simple and direct apporach to investing. They're the "set it and forget it" of the investing world. (Yes, you can trade options and more with a ShareBuilder account, but don't ruin our moment.) When we peruse ShareBuilder it's like visiting the land that time forgot, where people actually bought stock because they wanted own companies, where investing was regular and consistent, and where we cared as much about what a company does as what their stock chart looks like.

The only flaw in the whole approach is that most companies are a risky proposition. Stocks bought individually have the tendency to concentrate risk. As such, we hope the marketing team at ShareBuilder plans to follow up thier appeal with a new campaign for all their newly minted customers. Perhaps they could call it something like, "By the way, a good owner diversifies his/her holdings among non-correlated sectors."

ING Groep N.V. announced in October plans to sell ShareBuilder, a company it acquired two years ago for $220 million. ShareBuilder was originally backed with about $65 million from Madrona Venture Group, Wells Fargo (WFC), Safeco and others.