Patent ID: 7778902

Claim:
A method for opening an on-line brokerage account, comprising: electronically presenting by a central server a user with a non-alterable filled in application, which includes account information, for the on-line brokerage account, and a click-through agreement setting forth the terms of the on-line brokerage account; receiving by the central server an indication that the user agrees with the click-through agreement; opening the on-line brokerage account by the central server so that the opened on-line brokerage account is initially subject to one or more restrictions; providing by the central server the user with access to the on-line brokerage account, while it is initially subject to one or more restrictions; wherein when the user accesses the on-line account while it is subject to one or more restrictions, the user is prevented from trading securities in the on-line account, but the user can use the on-line brokerage account while is subject to one or more restrictions, to research different securities, and set up a watchlist to track different securities; and reviewing account information, and upon a successful review of the account information removing the one or more restrictions from the on-line brokerage account, wherein the successful review includes an approval; wherein if the reviewing the account information results in an unsuccessful review, performing an additional review of the account information for approval and determining whether to remove a subset of the one or more restrictions from the on-line brokerage account.