Still another problem faced by the larger houses is they are depending more and more on institutional business.

"There was much more broad-based institutional business than earlier sales," he said.

For the next ten years there was a growth of research and a development in institutional and corporate business.

The firm's institutional business carried the load, as usual.

Moreover, Fidelity is making a big push for more institutional business - much of it involving large retirement accounts.

"There has been very little corporate or institutional business," he said.

Also, firms that are in both the retail and institutional businesses said they would be participating.

"We have time and again been a leader in the institutional business," he said.

But there was little institutional business, and trading was light.

This is aimed at the businesses that are currently too small to compete with full service brokers within the institutional business.