Research Paper on:
CHARLES SCHWAB - AN ANALYSIS

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
well in branding, especially in such a competitive market as brokerage and financial management. Though Schwab started out as a maverick in his field, the company is now on a  par with the more traditional competitors, such as Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs. The specialty Schwab offers is that investors makes their own decisions(hence the term "discount" - through bypassing  the broker and his/her advice, the theory is that the investor saves money; but maybe not time). In this paper, well examine some  aspects pertaining to Schwab, such as industry trends and a SWOT analysis. At the end of the paper, well offer some recommendations as well. Background  The Charles Schwab Corporation is the worlds largest discount brokerage, offering brokerage services, mutual funds, annuities, bond trading, access to IPO, futures and commodities trading and even mortgages  available via telephone, wireless and the Internet (as well as the 300-some offices across the United States) (Powers, 2004). Schwab also owns U.S. Trust (asset management) and CyberTrader (a direct-access  broker) (Powers, 2004). The company also acquired SoundView Technology Group, then sold it to UBS (Powers, 2004). Schwab is divided into four parts:  individual investor (retail brokerage and banking); institutional investor (large investors and companies); capital markets (trade executions for brokers, dealers and institution) and U.S. Trust (wealth management fiduciary and private banking  services both for wealthy individual clients and institutions) (Powers, 2004). Schwab was the brainchild of Stanford graduate Charles Schwab who, during the 1960s,  founded First Commander Corp., a company that managed investments (Powers, 2004). As Schwab didnt properly register his company with the SEC, he had to give it up (Powers, 2004).