Sandbox effect

Charles Schwab and the New Broker Wars

Price wars have been going on in the brokerage world for decades. But the latest battle just may be the last, at least when it comes to trading commissions.
Almost all of the major brokerage firms—Charles Schwab (ticker: SCHW), E*Trade Financial (ETFC), Interactive Brokers Group (IBKR), and TD Ameritrade Holding (AMTD)—slashed equity-trading commissions to zero this week. (Fidelity and Vanguard seem to be holding out—for now.) The rapid-fire cuts caught investors and analysts by surprise, sending the stocks reeling as it became...

The new model is not broker firms but liquidity nets complete with a useful trade press and multiple portals into investment funds.  JP Morgan has figured this out.