Boerse London Stock Exchange, Deal fell through Deutsche Boerse   Nordic Exchanges (Norex) Alliance between Copenhagen Trading began June 21, 1999 Stock Exchange and OM Stockholm Exchange   Baltic Exchanges: Lithuanias Signed a letter of intent to Announced May 2, 2000 Tallinn, Latvias Riga and participate in Norex Lithuanias National exchanges   Iceland Stock Exchange; Separately signed letters of Announced spring 2000 Oslo Exchange intent to participate in Norex   NYSE/Toronto/Euronext/ Mexico/Santiago Linked trading in shared listings Early discussions     *Joint-venture between the NASD and Softbank established June 1999. Source: The Wall Street Journal, May 10, 2000, and May 15, 2000.   executives or financial consultants. Besides carrying out the basic services of executing or- ders, holding securities for safekeeping, extending margin loans, and facilitating short sales, normally they provide information and advice relating to investment alternatives. Full-service brokers usually are supported by a research staff that issues analyses and fore- casts of general economic, industry, and company conditions and often makes specific buy or sell recommendations. Some customers take the ultimate leap of faith and allow a full-service broker to make buy and sell decisions for them by establishing a discretionary account. This step requires an unusual degree of trust on the part of the customer, because an unscrupulous broker can "churn" an account, that is, trade securities excessively, in order to generate commissions. Discount brokers, on the other hand, provide "no-frills" services. They buy and sell se- curities, hold them for safekeeping, offer margin loans, and facilitate short sales, and that is all. The only information they provide about the securities they handle consists of price quotations. Increasingly, the line between full-service and discount brokers can be blurred. Some brokers are purely no-frill, some offer limited services, and others charge for specific services. In recent years, discount brokerage services have become increasingly available. Today, many banks, thrift institutions, and mutual fund management companies offer such services to the investing public as part of a general trend