G'day all - Larry, you sez "Remember the growing pains AOL had with the busy signals. Wear are they today. E*Trade will be the AOL of online trading by the end of the year. This can only make them stronger and give them more Pub."
1st a disclaimer, I ve no position in AOL or EGRP [I ve actually ignore the netmania in general, to my detriment <sg>]
While it is hard to tell how 3 crashes may affect EGRP, there are substantial differences between the then AOL and the now EGRP. 1st, and the obvious, is the amount of $ involved. 2 or 3 years ago, AOL to most people is a diversion. One might logon to check emails and stuff, to surf and pass time. Except maybe for the trendsetters, people's bank accounts didn't get decimated by not being able to logon to AOL. EGRP is the grand daddy of online trading. There is a lot of people who make their living using EGRP. This is especially damaging to the traders.
Even now, many people have multiple internet accounts [I ve two, one for home and one for work.] And the cost is minimal, even if one has 2 or 3 commercial ISP accounts [~$20*3=~$60/mo] OTOH, while one may also have multiple stock accounts, it is less likely. This is from a pragmatic perspective. Multiple portfolios are not for individuals because they are not joined, hard to manage and lower the purchasing power.
The bottomline is that a crash of AOL is an inconvenience, and threatening if it is used as the ISP to get to EGRP, but a crash of EGRP will be downright serious. Imagine, if one has shorted a stock but is unable to cover!!!
Finally, I make this case as a friendly academic study, no hidden agenda whatsoever.
best, Bosco |
