MetroStocks offers forum for local investors

SYRACUSE - Central New York area investors will soon be gathering in coffee houses, bars, and restaurants to discuss their favorite stocks of locally based companies if J. Scott Rader has his way.

Rader is the president of MetroStocks, LLC, a Dayton, Ohio-based startup Internet company that offers local news, commentary, and online-discussion forums for 6,000 stocks in the largest 120 cities or metropolitan areas in the country.

"We're helping investors to exchange information on the companies based on where they live. People who live and work in cities tend to know more about companies that are based there," says Rader. "We're providing a forum for people to share their local knowledge with people all over the country."

MetroStocks is teaming up with New York-based Meetup Inc., which runs Meetup.com, an online service that helps Web surfers with like - interests and hobbies to organize off-line meetings at restaurants, cafes, taverns, and other venues. Meetup.com has received a great deal of press attention this year because the campaigns of several of the Democratic Party candidates for President, especially Howard Dean, have used it to organize and mobilize voters. MetroStocks hopes that it'll also work with investors.