The Online Brokerage Wars: E*Trade Offers Compelling Risk/Reward

One of the most competitive spaces right now
must be the online brokerage business.<!----> It is to be expected: it is an
industry with relatively low barriers for entry and a huge potential
market. As the stock market is democratized by the power of the
Internet and its abundance of quality information, the need for
full-service brokers is dwindling.

This is not new, and the process has
been going on for years now. Yet, full-service brokers still have
significant number of customers who the online brokers are constantly
vying for. Likewise, new generations of would-be investors join the
mass of potential customers each year as thousands of young
professionals with an independent, entrepreneurial mindset enter the
job market and need to decide how to invest their newly acquired
disposable income.