These
online brokerage firms have been required to limit the leverage they offer to a maximum of 30:1, with limits as low as 2:1 for the riskiest assets.
Advisors from wirehouses and other self-clearing firms represent 40% of the sample; midsize and small traditional BDs represent 29%; independent RIAs represent 15%; and advisors with
online brokerage firms like Schwab, Fidelity, etc., represent 14%.
The severity of threat varies by firm and by business model, FINRA notes, with
online brokerage firms and retail brokerages more likely to rank hackers as their top priority risk.
The Generation Y demographic may be among the top segments apt to embrace
online brokerage firms, Celent discovered.
Major
online brokerage firms Matsui Securities and Monex Beans Holdings also marked losses.
Once you open your account, it is probably best to start with mutual funds, You can select from the thousands of funds available from any of the
online brokerage firms or you can ask your bank for help in selecting from the different funds it offers.
It was a banner first quarter for
online brokerage firms. Omaha-based Ameritrade, for one, broke several of its own records in the first quarter of fiscal 2004, including net income of $72 million, or 17 cents a share, and an operating margin of 63 percent, or $143 million.
Online brokerage firms should move into the areas that have been traditionally dominated by full service brokerage firms and banks.
Stockpoint had 183 customers at the end of the first quarter of 2001, including traditional and
online brokerage firms, commercial banks, asset managers, electronic communications networks, 401(k) sponsors, insurance companies, Web portals, and media companies.
But
online brokerage firms have not yet embraced the latest development in the market.
In 1999
online brokerage firms raised $1.76 billion in capital markets due to approximately five million online investors (Economist, 1999, and Registered Representative, 1999).