Dark pool for college kids?

WALL Street pros have dived headlong into dark pools, exclusive private exchanges where they can trade stocks with one another in secret. Now comes an entrepreneur with a new twist: a dark pool for the masses, especially young investors.

Call it a kiddie pool. Jumping into this pool takes a bit of faith. From his base near Boston, Tony Weeresingh1e is trying to get customers to quit online brokerages and trade via his fledgling trading system at Ustocktrade LLC. Mr Weeresinghe, a former executive at the London Stock Exchange, says his pint-size pool is cheaper than the E*Trades of the world. It offers US$1 stock trades - compared with US$4 to US$7 at the established companies - as well as no minimum account size.

Plus, Mr Weeresinghe says, Ustocktrade provides a bit of adventure - and operates primarily as a philanthropy. All that appeals to one of his target audiences, university students, who make up a fifth of customers. The CEO views inexpensive investing as a way to help clients pay off school loans. "The whole idea was to democratise the wealth," Mr Weeresinghe said. "The younger generation is much more adventurous."