You have your paycheck deposited electronically at the discount broker, just as you would at a bank.

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He watches discount broker TV ads that promise you can direct your investments by yourself, without paying an advisor.

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More than 78, 000 household investment accounts from one discount broker were surveyed, exploring overconfidence and its effects on the sexes.

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Discount broker Charles Schwab announced this morning that it is cutting the annual expense ratio on six of its eight proprietary exchange traded funds.

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This year, average daily trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange is about 3.8 billion shares, down from about five billion in early 2010, while discount broker TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.

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But Colby Sambrotto, the founder of ForSaleByOwner.com and USRealty.com, a discount broker, says that after trying to sell his own home in New York by himself, he was forced to hire an agent to get it shown to potential buyers.

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That was followed by the explosive growth of available mutual funds by which investors could swap an entire portfolio with just one phone call, and later just a click of a computer mouse, with no transaction cost if handled directly with the mutual fund, and only one small commission if handled through a discount broker.

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