What is a online trader?

In 1997, the SEC adopted "Order Handling Rules" which required market-makers to publish their best bid and ask on the NASDAQ. The existing ECNs did an about-face and began to offer their services to small investors. New brokerage firms began to emerge which specialized in serving online traders who wanted to trade on the ECNs. New ECNs also arose, most importantly Archipelago (arca) and Island (isld). Archipelago eventually became a stock exchange and in 2005 was purchased by the NYSE. (At this time, the NYSE has proposed merging Archipelago with itself, although some resistance has arisen from NYSE members.) Commissions plummeted; in an extreme example (1000 shares of Google), in 2005 an online trader might buy $300,000 of stock at a commission of about $10, as opposed to the $3,000 commission he would have paid in 1974. Moreover, the trader would be able to buy the stock almost instantly and would get it at a cheaper price.