Since the company started Internet trading for its domestic customers in May, many foreign customers have expressed interest.

While Schwab may be the largest broker to offer Internet trading to foreigners, it is not the first.

The question for consumers will be figuring out whether Internet trading is right for them and finding the cheapest, most reliable place to do it.

(She says she has already written or contributed to 17 books on Internet trading.)

An exception was one of my colleagues, a professor who actively managed his own portfolio long before the advent of Internet trading.

First, while Internet trading was the exclusive domain of smaller companies until about a year ago, now a number of large financial firms have joined in.

Internet trading can be like having a bookmaker or a croupier in your living room.

But ultimately it decided that Internet trading was neither a fad nor a small segment of the market.

"I see people getting killed" through Internet trading, he said.

The biggest hurdle for Internet trading has been security, of both information and money.