1.   Amid the uproar over the conflicts of interest at traditional brokerage firms, Charles Schwab Corp. has begun rating stocks as part of its gradual move toward advising investors.

2.   And their valuations are exponentially larger than those of traditional brokerage firms.

3.   At the same time, market regulators are starting to adopt rules that will govern the move of traditional brokerage firms to the trading of securities online.

4.   Bad decisions can hand a huge advantage to a competitor or drive customers to new technologies that bypass traditional brokerages altogether.

5.   Both Schwab and Fidelity are also competing against traditional brokerages like Merrill Lynch, which have slowly waded into low-cost Web investing.

6.   A few traditional brokerages cautiously introduced limited Web trading this year.

7.   But it was received as evidence that traditional brokerage firms were ignorant of the changing needs of investors, who clearly have embraced online trading.

8.   But traditional brokerage giants like Merrill Lynch and Paine Webber, which reported record first-quarter profits Tuesday, are also being swept up in the enthusiasm.

9.   Goldman has long shunned the idea of setting up a traditional brokerage operation itself, preferring to concentrate its resources on wholesale investment banking and asset management.

10.   Here, youthful entrepreneurs have taken big transaction volume away from traditional brokerage firms by creating upstart trading networks where investors can meet to buy and sell NASDAQ stocks.