Well I wish I was in France right now too. As far as asset gathering goes, the numbers are way skewed against you. The top 20% wealthy individuals own over 85% of wealth in U.S.A. So do the math for yourself. Also, it is not the commissions that make them the money. It is the interest and structured derivatives and other financial products. Merrill Lynch had revenues of $8,172,000,000 last quarter alone. If that money was to be made on commissions alone, you would need 326,880,000 trades per year for the jacked up commissions of $100. That's more than *all* the middle class families in America trade. And we are not even talking about LEH, MWD, DLJ, PRU, and so on. Like I said, these "growing" brokerages are not on the same planet as the big guys and the big guys would not buy them.
regards,
Sun Tzu |
