i know alot about the brokerage industry, but i’d like to know who i can go to in order to support and build an online trading platform for stock and bond transactions over the internet.
i’ve seen a few sites that offer $5.00 stock trades and i’m sure they must be using an interface set up through another host company.
but who is that host company?
it’s got to be a company that does the clearing, margining, and cashiering i believe.
the host company would be responsible for the major issues like insurance, backoffice, etc
the few online brokers out there today like Schwab, E*trade and TD Ameritrade are all independent and spent millions of dollars building their platform and have backoffices as well.
but is there a ‘plug n’ play’ solution for a small broker/dealer operation available??

and as trade prices go down, what is going to keep the business from becoming a ‘loss leader’?
margin rates?
options trades?
mutual fund fee kickbacks?
advertising on every confirmation ticket/email