Freddie's, a tiny deli on the first floor of an apartment building in a residential neighborhood, is a good 10-minute walk from San Francisco's financial district. It's in something of a no-man's land. Walk 10 minutes in the opposite direction from the financial district and you land at Fisherman's Wharf. You could pass the place a dozen times without noticing it. It's open just a few hours a day.
Patrons linger into the afternoon on the park bench outside the shop.
Initially, it seems quite far from the world of daytrading. But the old Zenith TV next to the deli counter is tuned to CNBC . The owner, Eddy Sweileh, a quiet man of Lebanese and Jordanian descent in his early 40s, is cordial with his regular customers yet at all times keeps one eye on the cash register, the other on the screen. He jumps into hot names and jumps out again before they can hurt him. In 10 years, online trading has swept the nation.