Last week I posted a review of The Shift Age, by David Houle.  Since then, I had the good fortune of interviewing David about the book.

TCOB: David, your blog Evolution Shift has become an increasingly popular site in the blogosphere regarding a futurist’s look at where we’re headed.  Explain to the readers of The Corner Office blog what a futurist is.
David: Sure, my definition of a futurist is what I do, which is to act as a catalyst to get people to think about the future and then to facilitate the conversation about the future that …

David Houle’s post on Sogo Invest and how they have cut commissions by eliminating the middle man sparked my interest, and I was fortunate enough to land an exclusive interview with Sogo Invest President, William Yeh.

My first reaction is that Mr. Yeh is very much in tune with what the every day investor wants in an online trading brokerage platform: low prices, ease of use and great service.

The following is a summarized transcript of our conversation:

Grant: Mr. Yeh, you’ve got a solid background in the brokerage industry with the development of Genesis Securities, LLC and the Laser trading platform.  Tell me a little about the Laser platform.

William: My history is in trading futures, and I believe in utilizing automation and electronics to remove the human hands from trading, making the whole financial process as fluid as possible.  That’s why we created the Laser system.

We developed the Laser trading platform to interact directly with the markets, and in turn we eliminated the need to buy information from a third party.  We get all of our data directly from the NYSE and the NASDAQ.  We also clear our own trades, eliminating yet another third party.

The Laser system was developed for the professional trader, and it has retained a Platinum rating from the NASDAQ.  Other trading platforms such as E*Trade have a Silver rating.

Grant: You’ve got great technology for the professional trader, and you trade between 2-4% of the daily volume on the NASDAQ.  What inspired you to develop Sogo Invest?

William: We really developed Sogo Invest for the simple, every day trader. While the Laser system is used primarily for the professional trader, we are taking that technology and putting into Sogo Invest.

Grant: How can Sogo Invest undercut the rest of the online brokerage markets in terms of commissions and fees?

William: Since we buy our own data directly from the NASDAQ and the NYSE and we clear our own trades, we’ve eliminated many of our third party costs.  We pass these savings directly on to our customer.  We could raise our commissions to $10, $8, or $6, and enjoy a larger profit, but we want to pass these savings on to the customer to get more people to join us, and more importantly stay with us.

The large amount of volume we clear every day also helps keep costs down, based on the economy of scale.

Our price speaks loudly, but service is also key.