Abstract
This paper discusses the retail brokerage industry and how it has changed over the past few decades due to technological advancement and the eruption of online e-trading. This paper examines and compares the traditional brokerage firm to the discount firm to e-trading. The writer discusses how traditional investment firms will compete. Porter's Five Forces model is used in this article to critically assess the investment industry.

From the Paper
"With increased globalization, companies need to conduct continuous analysis in order to develop strategies to address the contemporary condition of competitive markets. Industry analysis is necessary to determine the forces of competition. The retail brokerage industry has experienced a number of changes in recent times, particularly due to the shift in consumer behavior from using traditional full service brokerages to discount firms to online investing through e-trading. For this industry, analysis will be conducted in an effort to determine who has the power, the customers or the suppliers? Competitive forces provide buyers or suppliers with an advantage in terms of who holds the bargaining power."

Tags:retail, brokerage, investment

Abstract
This paper discusses the retail brokerage industry and how the Internet and e-Commerce has impacted the investment market. Porter's five forces analysis is used to determine industry rivalry, bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, threat of substitute, etc.. The paper includes a strategic map of the industry in terms of where the market players are positioned.

From the Paper
"The dynamic nature of the retail brokerage industry is constantly changing due to fluctuations in the economy, globalization, and advanced technology (i.e. Internet). In the 21^st century, the retail brokerage industry has experienced dramatic changes in order to meet and exceed the demands of consumers by developing online accessibility to corporate and trade information. In recent times, this industry has been hit hard due to investment scandals publicized by the media."

Tags:retail, brokerage, industry

Abstract
This paper discusses how e-commerce has contributed to the retail brokerage industry by becoming more global and more contestable. It also looks at how actual and potential competition has been significantly increased by the spread of e-commerce at all stages of the industry.

From the Paper
"With the spread of globalization and increased competition among firms, E-commerce has contributed to the shift in the paradigm of the retail brokerage industry due to changes in consumer behaviour as a result from utilizing traditional full service firms, to discount brokerages to investing online."

Tags:retail, brokerage, firm

Abstract
This paper asks if the retail financial securities brokerage will survive past 2010 and answers "yes" but with the qualification that the industry will become segmented. The author believes that the full-service brokers will serve primarily wealthy customers and the online brokers will serve the cost-conscious lower income investors. The author recommendations that on-line brokers be trained to service adequately personnel accounts and to adopt meaningful ethics policies and that full-service brokers redefine their target markets and realign their strategy to address these markets.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Description and History of the Industry
Business Challenges
Competition
Marketing and Customer Demand
Financial
Human Resources
Technology
Legal/Regulatory/Political
Ethical
Other
Industry Responses, Strategies, and Solutions
Recommendations and Conclusions

From the Paper
"Informal trading in the shares of limited liability companies began in Britain's American Colonies around 1725, five years after the South Sea Bubble. This trading grew out of an auction market that had developed at the foot of Wall Street in New York City. The auction market dealt extensively in commodities, particularly wheat and tobacco. The trading of financial securities was slowly introduced into the auction market."

Tags:segment, full-service, online, restriction, glass-steagall

Abstract
Analysis of the retail financial securities brokerage industry in the U.S. Major transition of the retail segment of the investment banking business. Impact of Information Technology (IT) and other sources of change. How sweeping change will affect the industry. History of the industry; trading; business challenges; competition. Consumer demand. Financial concern. Financial regulatory system. Risk. Ethical concerns.

From the Paper
"RETAIL BROKERAGE INDUSTRY: AN ANALYSIS

Introduction
This research develops an analysis of the retail financial securities brokerage industry in the United States. As is true for many industries in the contemporary period, the retail segment of the investment banking business finds itself in the midst of a major transition in the way in which the industry conducts its business. Many of the changes that are occurring in the industry derive from the ways in which advances in information technology (IT) are affecting the industry. There are, however, other important sources of change that are affecting the industry. Foremost among these other sources of change is government. To be more specific, this source of change involves the elimination of laws and regulations that, in the past ..."

Abstract
It is the Internet that has spurred the enormous growth of discount brokerage in the post 1995 period. The Internet is the lifeblood of the discount brokerage and its existence is almost wholly dependent on the ability of the Internet to reach and effectively serve, the armchair global investor. Accordingly, the future shape of the Internet will determine the success or failure of the discount brokerage. To a lesser degree, the discount brokerage will determine the future shape of the Internet, at least in terms of its application to financial services.

Abstract
This paper evaluates the discount brokerage in terms of Porter's 'Five Forces Analysis. This author reviews job attitudes and job equity for both the manager and broker at a typical discount brokerage firm.

Abstract
This paper will look at the full service brokerages and the increased competition that it faces. Some of the topics discussed in the paper are, comparing full-service and discount brokerages, trends in the brokerage industry, and prospects for the industry.

Abstract
The writer of this paper details the numerous accomplishments of Charles Merrill, co-founder of the Wall Street brokerage firm Merrill-Lynch. This paper analyzes Merrill's leadership style and vision as the first stockbroker who made it possible for average, individual investors to enter the U.S. stock market, a venue previously available to only rich investors and corporations. The writer contends and explains how Merrill reached out beyond the typical investor, to those not familiar with Wall Street, which resulted in not only attracting new investors, but retaining them as well. This paper also delves into the reasons Merrill is still a leader on Wall Street.

From the Paper
"Charles Merrill was a revolutionary, who changed the way an entire industry did business. Charles Merrill has an overall vision, a revolutionary one at that, of democratizing Wall Street for the average American investor. This, however, was not just a vague, overall vision, but instead a logical, detailed, and methodical plan to actually make it happen. Perhaps from his own humble origins, and perhaps from having "been there" himself, and risen to the investor class from nowhere, Charles Merrill was thus able to enter into the mindset of the average, American would-be Wall Street investor. From that perspective, then, Merrill was able to sell such a person on the idea of stock market investing."

Tags:investement, stock, market, finance, wall, street, broker, brokerage, applied, practice

Abstract
The IT changes in the discount brokerage industry have been enormous over the 1995-1999 period. In response to this rapid technological advancement, the number of discount brokerages has multiplied with several hundred now active in the market. Investors are becoming increasingly price conscious and there is great pressure on technology to reduce transactions costs and the time it takes for investor's bids to reach the trading floor. Those with the most advanced technology will dominate the market. Information technology, therefore, is perhaps the most critical success factor and, more than this, it is guiding the development of the entire brokerage industry. This study takes a Work Centered Analysis (WCA) approach to the key IT changes made over the 1995-1999 period.

Tags:changes, information, technology