AlphaTrade betting on Dubai as next big thing

Pensions & Investments Volume 34; Number 21
by Jay Sherman

If the Middle Eastern emirate of Dubai remains a mystery to some people, Penny Perfect is looking to clear things up a bit. Real-time stock-quote service provider AlphaTrade, Vancouver, British Columbia, has begun offering an Arabic version of its stock-quote service E-Gate to clients there, according to Ms. Perfect, CEO.

E-Gate works similarly to other real-time stock-quote services offered by data giants such as Bloomberg and Reuters, offering an Internet-based service that provides fundamental data, stock quotes and news. But it goes further by offering a translation tool the translates content into and out of Arabic. Augmenting E-Gate is another AlphaTrade product called Jupiter, which can deliver E-Gate content to PDAs and BlackBerrys. AlphaTrade has also begun offering a similar product in Hindi for customers in India.

Ms. Perfect said Dubai will become a major financial player and is a potential model for the launch of other financial markets in the region. And in a sign of just how committed her company is to Dubai, AlphaTrade, which trades on the OTC Bulletin Board in the United States, applied to also be traded on the Dubai International Foreign Exchange. The company is awaiting word on its application in November.

"We have a chance to pave the way," she said, noting Dubai is a market that has "no liquidity but lots of cash."

* The original article includes a photo. Photo caption: Penny Perfect, CEO of AlphaTrade, sees the Arab emirate as a potential gateway.