Remisiers are complaining that reduced brokerage and online broking have marginalised them and affected their livelihood.

First of all, I would like to highlight the poor standard of remisiers in Malaysia. Most of them are not even familiar with some of the blue chip stocks.

I have two trading accounts with two different companies in Malaysia. Once, when I wanted to purchase shares in YTL Power, a RM10 billion company, which is also one of the index counters, my remisier asked me for the code of the company! It is one of the largest companies that is actively traded on Bursa Malaysia and he does not even know the code even though he has been in the industry for more than five years. If he does not even know the code, would you expect him to know the financial state of the company?

In the other securities company, I do not have a particular remisier. I place my orders through various dealers. Once, I asked one of the dealers, 'What do you guys think of Timedotcom ?'

His reply was, 'My fellow colleagues and I are very bullish about Timedotcom. It's earning a lot of money and will earn more. The government is supporting it very well'. That was the last time I ever asked my remisier or dealers any more questions. They know next to nothing. In fact, I have switched to online trading recently.

Remisiers in Malaysia need to work harder and do more reading and research. Do not expect clients to pay remisiers for nothing more than entering some codes and numbers into the system. We can do that ourselves.

I understand that some of the fees go to the brokers but remisiers need to provide much better service if they want to charge more than online broking. At the moment, with the 'zero knowledge' remisiers who just key in orders, there is no reason why people should trade through them.

We can always read research reports from analysts or even trading blogs like investssmart. blogspot.com for knowledge on trading online.

Remisiers should treat online trading as competition and stop complaining. They have been earning easy money for the last 10 years for doing one of the simplest jobs there is. Either make yourself more useful or be deemed redundant.