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"There is zero reason for the traditional broker," says Mark Geurts, a Yale University graduate student who regularly makes stock trades online.

Mark spends hours a day scrolling on an interactive screen displaying real-time stock quotes via his account with a company called Datek Securities. Online trading services set up accounts for customers, then process orders and conduct research for a flat per-trade fee.

Special software remembers Mark's orders and lets him call up the pricing history of the 15 companies he has stored in a database.

He can instruct Datek to buy or sell stock right away at the best price available in the current market. His order is received via the Internet and directed electronically to the floor of the NYSE, AMEX or other exchange.

If a stock's price is moving rapidly, his order might be filled at a significantly different price than the quote which was indicated when he made the order. Mark can set a price limit beyond which he does not want to buy a stock. This way he can eliminate the risk of an unexpectedly high price.

Mark can make his orders anytime, day or night. But Datek Online only processes his orders during regular market hours of 9:30 am to 4:00 pm ET.

Once, licensed brokers conducted almost all stock trading and shifting for individual investors. These days, 17 percent of individual trades occur online.

Mark passes about 45 minutes a day this way. He buys and sells by typing and clicking, then follows company reports and industry events on Yahoo! in the evenings. He says he would never handle his stocks another way.

"If you call a broker, he will offer you a spread," he says. "If you say you want to split it, he will say OK. Then he will stick the order on his desk and wait for the market to move." Mark is still a full-time student-but he has picked up professional strategies in his 19 months of trading. "I'll pick up a couple hundred shares and try to sell each one for a quarter higher."

VIDEO GAME RUSH

Online trading can give you the adrenaline highs and lows of video games. Ravi Dhar, a marketing professor at the Yale School of Management notes, "When people moved online to services like e-schwab, they traded more frequently," he says. "Much like compulsive shopping, people trade too much and may end up losing more money!"

Indeed, online trading can burn first-timers. Unlike a live broker, a software interface never puts its hand on your shoulder and makes sure you know what you're doing. In many ways, the emotionless nature of online trading requires more discipline than the person to person kind.

"They never assume any risk," Mark says of Datek's treasury, through which all trades pass. "If you're margined [which means you're spending money you don't have in hopes of a stock surge], they start selling your stock."

Online brokerages also tend not to give the investment advice a person could get from a decent warm body, though some sell safer investments like government-backed bonds.

No one knows what Wall Street will look like 20 years from now. But experts predict that the Internet will open up new lines of communication between companies and their stock holders. In the not-to-distant future, the entire glittering world of stocks and bonds may be just a click away.

From Alec Applebaum, Freelance Writer