1.   Bear Stearns, for its part, earns much of its revenue processing trades and providing capital for smaller Wall Street firms.

2.   Both houses processed trades for Massachusetts day-trading firms where regulators found rampant problems such as forged documents and altered trade confirmation statements.

3.   But A.R. Baron, for one, could not have pillaged and plundered unless a larger firm had been willing to process its trades.

4.   Clearing firms, which have nothing to do with mid-winter snow removal, are the paper-pushing brokerage operations that process the trades ordered by your stock broker.

5.   Discount brokers typically process trades for investors without offering other services, like credit cards or investment advice, that many brokerage firms do offer.

6.   Historically, clearing firms have argued that they simply process trades and are therefore not responsible for policing practices at the smaller brokerage firms they count as customers.

7.   Instead, they serve investors who only want their trades processed.

8.   Investors often know less about the value of securities than do the corporations that issue them or the professionals who process trades.

9.   It will not even process trades in between.

10.   Merrill said it would process the trades at prices when the orders were made.