Motif Investing Unveils Online Platform to Empower Individuals to Invest in Ideas

SAN MATEO, Calif., June 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Motif Investing, Inc., a company pioneering ideas-based stock investing, today announced the launch of an innovative online platform allowing individual investors to buy specialized portfolios of stocks based on their own everyday ideas—and letting them share those ideas with friends. These customizable, theme-based collections of stocks, called motifs, represent a groundbreaking way for people to invest in what they know while taking control of their finances in today's volatile markets.

"Motif symbolizes investor empowerment and represents a major step forward in personal investing," said Hardeep Walia, Motif's co-founder and CEO. "Since the Great Recession, investors have been demanding more control of their money and better performance. Now more than ever, they need a simple and intuitive way to act on their own investment ideas and create diversified portfolios they can understand."

Motif also announced that former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt and former Wall Street executive Sallie Krawcheck, both champions of the individual investor, have taken key roles at the company. Levitt joins as Motif's newest board advisor. Appointed SEC Chairman by President Bill Clinton in 1993, Levitt launched several pro-investor initiatives during his tenure at the Commission, including the www.sec.gov Web site and the Office of Investor Education and Assistance.

Krawcheck, who most recently was president of Bank of America's wealth-management division and, prior to that, served as CEO of Citigroup's global wealth-management unit, has joined the board of directors. "Across all the innovative financial companies I have recently reviewed, Motif represents a major step forward in making it possible for individual investors to diversify their investments across multiple themes, and to do so in a cost-effective way," Krawcheck said.

Motif Connects Users with Facebook for Idea-based Investing

Motifs are carefully researched and weighted portfolios of up to 30 stocks with real-world themes like "Renter Nation," "Mobile Internet," "Caffeine Fix" and even the "Seven Deadly Sins"—a portfolio including tobacco, liquor and gambling stocks. When investors buy a motif, they own actual shares of the stocks that reflect the idea. They can also customize any motif by eliminating or adding stocks – or by changing any stock's relative weight in the motif. Motifs can be purchased for $9.95, though the company is offering commission-free trades through June.

As part of its launch, Motif is making investing truly social. Its new technology platform enables customers to create new friend "circles" on the Motif platform by inviting their Facebook friends with whom they want to share investing ideas. Motif believes that investing has always been social, with people trading ideas in investment clubs or just bouncing ideas off friends. Now, "we're just bringing that online," Walia said. Motif investors can choose to be as public or as private as they like with sharing their ideas.

Motif also is launching a new set of motifs in its investing catalog. They include "Lots of Likes," a portfolio of stocks representing the most-liked companies on Facebook, and "Income Inequality," a motif based on the growing divide between the "haves" and the "have-nots". The "Income Inequality" motif includes stocks of high-end and low-end retailers that serve our society of extremes.  

Investors can choose from the current catalog of more than 50 theme-based motifs, with additional motifs being constructed on an ongoing basis. This year's top-performing motifs include "Biotech Breakthroughs" (21.3% year-to-date return), "Cloud Computing" (20.9%), "Home Improvement" (18.9%), "Housing Recovery" (16.2%) and "Hot Retail" (15.4%).

About Motif Investing

Motif Investing is an online broker that lets you invest in a world of big ideas. The company, based in Silicon Valley, is changing the face of online investing through an innovative new platform that allows individuals to invest in stock portfolios based around everyday ideas—and share those ideas with friends. Motif is a registered broker-dealer and a member of FINRA. The company's investors include Foundation Capital, Ignition Partners and Norwest Venture Partners. Learn more at https://www.motifinvesting.com.

Investing in securities involves risk, you should be aware of prior to making an investment decision. An investment in individual stocks, or a collection of stocks focused on a particular theme or idea, such as a motif, may be subject to increased risk of price fluctuation over more diversified holdings due to adverse developments which can affect a particular industry or sector. 

Return data is provided for informational purposes only and based on past results taken from January 1, 2012 through May 11, 2012, and is not intended to represent returns an investor could expect to achieve.  Stated returns of individual motifs do not take into consideration certain fees and/or commissions, corporate actions, or other activity that can affect the return an investor could expect to incur.  The chart is not intended to imply any future performance of any motif. Please refer to FAQs at https://www.motifinvesting.com for more information regarding the Motif Investing commission structure.

EDITORIAL CONTACT:
Marisa Lam
GMK Communications for Motif
[email protected] 
650-544-3350

SOURCE Motif Investing, Inc.