But the major brokerage firms continued to ignore the exploding phenomenon of online trading. Today, online trading has caught Wall Street's attention with a vengeance. Fueled by the bull market, Internet brokers have attracted a deluge of new customers. We've opened the world's biggest back door into the market. It's a lot like the guy with the buggy whip.
Cheap prices are only part of the Internet's influence.
An avalanche of mostly free financial information is readily available to investors. But investors are entranced with online investing. The commission system produces a high cost structure for the industry with results that are not necessarily good for the investor. Change is difficult because the firms earn billions from brokers, who in turn are very powerful within their firms. And full-service firms don't always live up to their names.