Online Broker TradeKing Crowns Team from University of Nebraska (Lincoln) the Winner in TradeKing $100K API Campus Challenge

Following four months of intense development work on the part of 29 competing teams of undergraduate college students from around the country, online broker-dealer TradeKing (www.tradeking.com) today congratulated the “Stock Bros” team from the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln as the national winner of the TradeKing $100K API Campus Challenge. This unique challenge was created to drive a collaboration between academia and a financial services industry leader like TradeKing to foster creativity and drive awareness about innovative entrepreneurial possibilities around Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The winning Stock Bros student team received $58K in prize money in recognition of its top national finish.

Today’s increasingly app-centric world is changing how we live, interact, collaborate, consume services – and now, invest online. In July, 2011, TradeKing launched its open API to help developers, partners and tech-savvy investors create highly-customized trading platforms and apps, opening up a whole new avenue to deliver greater choice for the firm’s more than 300,000 clients. The API Campus Challenge takes this approach to the next level by challenging academic innovators to continue creating new apps and mashups to let customers trade in the ways that best fit their individual styles.

“Since September, I’ve watched closely as the Campus Challenge student teams worked diligently to understand the online brokerage industry and put their creative skills to work developing next generation apps to let investors learn and trade in innovative new ways,” said Don Montanaro, CEO and Chairman of TradeKing. “My fellow Campus Challenge judges and I were incredibly impressed with the caliber of work submitted by these students, which made choosing the national winner a difficult task. But the Stock Bros team from the University of Nebraska rose to the top of our list based on the creative approach it took to app development, its underlying technical proficiency and its mashup of two additional APIs. I congratulate the entire University of Nebraska, Lincoln community for this tremendous achievement.”

About the Winning App

The Stock Bros app creates the capability to trade through TradeKing from any location. The app features a browser plug-in, an Android application, plus a cloud-based notification service to Android Platforms. As a user browses the web, a Google Chrome extension scans pages for stock symbols and appends a stock quote to the page. When a quote is clicked, it opens a larger view of the quote along with a chart pulled from the Yahoo! Finance API, and joins with capabilities via the TradeKing API to add the symbol to a watchlist and even trade the stock through TradeKing, all without leaving the page where the symbol was located. From the browser extension, traders can further manage push notifications that are sent via their web service to the Android application. The powerful app also features notification management.

About the TradeKing API Campus Challenge

Born out of a groundbreaking pilot program conducted in Spring 2011 at the Sellinger School of Business and Management at Loyola University Maryland, the Fall 2011 semester-long TradeKing Challenge provided undergraduate business/finance and technology students across the U.S. with real-life experience developing investment-focused “Apps” and “User Interfaces” using TradeKing’s API. Teams from more than a dozen universities across the United States participated in the Challenge. Winners were announced during a live streaming event that demoed the seven top apps.

The TradeKing Challenge leveraged the innovative concept of classroom crowdsourcing to encourage students to develop new web and mobile applications using the TradeKing API, potentially combining the TradeKing API with other APIs from websites such as Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google. Submissions were judged by a panel including senior TradeKing executives; Professor Paul Tallon, associate professor of information systems and operations management at the Loyola University Maryland Sellinger School; Jason Heltzer, Principal, OCA Ventures; Brian O’Malley, Partner, Battery Ventures; and Greg MacSweeney, Editorial Director of Wall Street & Technology magazine.

"The project was very real for us because it was part of our Raikes School finance class grade,” said team captain Chris Johnson. “We started out doing this for our class but found ourselves more motivated as we started competing with schools across the US. The visit from the CEO and CIO of TradeKing really motivated us with a vision of winning the contest."

“There's no doubt that the Raikes School students worked harder and more creatively and learned more because of the competition,” commented Professor David Keck, University of Nebraska. “Our students demonstrated outstanding capabilities in creating sophisticated applications -- solutions that enhance customer experiences.”

Additional Divisional and School Winners

In addition to the national Challenge winner, TradeKing awarded cash prizes to runner-up teams from other core qualifying schools that met the competition criteria of submitting at least three working apps:

School Winners (each team received $3K):

Divisional Winners (each team received $5K):

TradeKing also awarded two special Chairman’s Prizes to teams from the University of Nebraska (WYSIWYG team) and Villanova (TK Dash team) that did not win a category or Division, but whose apps particularly distinguished themselves. Additional prizes were awarded to faculty members and schools that demonstrated outstanding support for the program.

For more details on all the winning TradeKing API Campus Challenge apps, please refer to the attached addendum.

The top apps from the Campus Challenge competition will soon be featured alongside professionally-developed apps in TradeKing’s new Application Gallery. The Application Gallery will provide individual investors with myriad unique ways to connect to TradeKing and other market information and research sites and services.

To learn more about the TradeKing $100K API Campus Challenge, visit http://apicampuschallenge.com/.

About TradeKing

TradeKing (http://www.tradeking.com) is a nationally licensed online stock and options broker offering simple, low cost online trading fees ($4.95 per trade plus $.65 per option contract, $8.95 per trade plus $.15 per options contract for nine or more contracts).1 A pioneer in integrating new financial social media as part of its innovative online equities, options trading and fixed-income trading platform, TradeKing has received multiple discount broker awards from top industry sources and was rated best in customer service by SmartMoney2 Magazine, ahead of OptionsXpress, Scottrade, Fidelity, and TD Ameritrade. (June 2011 SmartMoney Broker Survey).

Follow TradeKing on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TradeKing,
Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/tradeking,
YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/tradeking,
LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/company/tradeking.

Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. For more information, please review the Characteristics and Risks of Standard Options brochure before you begin trading options. Options investors may lose the entire amount of their investment in a relatively short period of time.

TradeKing provides self-directed investors with discount brokerage services, and does not make recommendations or offer investment, financial, legal or tax advice. The content of this press release is provided for educational and informational purposes only, does not constitute a recommendation to enter in any of the securities transactions or to engage in any of the investment strategies presented herein, and does not represent the opinions of TradeKing or its employees.

Online trading has inherent risks due to system response and access times that vary due to market conditions, system performance and other factors. An investor should understand these and additional risks before trading.

Multiple leg options strategies involve additional risks and multiple commissions, and may result in complex tax treatments. Please consult a tax professional prior to implementing these strategies.

Member FINRA/SIPC.

(1) $4.95 for equity and option trades, add 65 cents per option contract. Trade more than 8 contracts, and we'll automatically lower your cost to $8.95 per trade plus 15 cents per contract. TradeKing charges an additional $0.35 per contract on certain index products where the exchange charges fees. TradeKing adds $0.01 per share on the entire order for stocks priced less than $1.00. See our Commissions + Fees page at www.tradeking.com/fees for details on commissions on low-priced stocks, option spreads, and other securities.

(2) TradeKing was ranked #1 in Customer Service in the SmartMoney June 2011 Broker Survey based on the following categories: Commissions and Fees, Mutual Funds & Investment Products, Banking Services, Trading Tools, Research, and Customer Service. SmartMoney is a registered trademark of SmartMoney, a joint publishing venture between Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and Hearst Partnership. Supporting documentation for any claims, comparison, statistics, or other technical data, will be supplied upon request by calling 877-495-5464 or via email at service@tradeking.com.

ADDENDUM
DETAILS OF WINNING TRADEKING API CAMPUS CHALLENGE APPS

University of Nebraska, Lincoln - Stock Bros (National winner, Midwest Division winner, School winner)
The Stock Bros app creates the capability to trade through TradeKing from any location. The app features a browser plug-in, plus a cloud-based notification service to Android Platforms. As a user browses the web, a Google Chrome extension scans pages for stock symbols and appends a stock quote to the page. When a quote is clicked, it opens a larger view of the quote along with a chart pulled from the Yahoo! Finance API, and joins with capabilities via the TradeKing API to add the symbol to a watchlist and even trade the stock through TradeKing, all without leaving the page where the symbol was located. From the browser extension, traders can further manage push notifications that are sent via their web service to the Android application. The powerful app also features notification management.

East Division: Villanova - Stock Portfolio Manager (East Division winner, School winner)
The Stock Portfolio Manager is a Windows desktop app that pulls market news from Yahoo! and Twitter based on an investor’s TradeKing watchlist. The app also features a full API around adding additional watchlists through TradeKing’s API, as well as a market sector "cloud" interface that visually depicts a variety of information around the S&P’s GICS sectors.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute – Stock Munki (Open Division winner)
StockMunki is an Android Tablet application that integrates the TradeKing watchlist and information pulled from the Yahoo! API to deliver relevant market data and charts to investors.

Loyola University Maryland – SafeTrade (School winner)
SafeTrade is an Android app that allows investors to search for a quote, view a simple chart along with the quote display, and trade via TradeKing’s API. The app also enables investors to optionally Tweet their trade while placing an order.

McKendree University – Open Source Bogey (School winner)
The Open Source Bogey Android application enables investors to look up quotes, trade via the TradeKing API, and Tweet their quotes via a Twitter API connection.

University of Nebraska, Lincoln - WYSIWYG (Chairman’s Prize winner)
WYSIWYG is an elegant Windows 7 phone app that allows investors to place trades via the TradeKing API, monitor watchlists and track market changes. It features convenient auto-completion functionality for symbol or company names via a connection through the Yahoo! API.

Villanova - TK Dash (Chairman’s Prize winner)
TK Dash is a Windows-based app that provides essential account information, market data, and trading capabilities via the TradeKing API. The app features a social aspect via a connection to the Twitter API. An advanced charting package includes historical market data and offers a refreshing user experience.

© 2008 SYS-CON Media