Paullieronline, the first on line broker in Uruguay and the first in Latin America in operating with the three American stock exchanges at real time (American Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq) started on Monday 11 September its operations after the technological and attendance success that the Stock Game had in the last month. Víctor Paullier&Co, a stock broker that is in the Uruguayan market since 1904, launched the Paullieronline site together with ARTech, its technological partner, the site that will allow investing in the stock market for a fix price of US$ 39,95 per each performed operation, independently from which the amount of shares that are bought and sold is. 

How does Víctor Paullier&Co operate?
MP: The clients phone us and we enter the orders. We have several types of clients. We give them advice on where and how to invest, and we search for the investment that fits their profile, up to the clients that manage their money, and the only thing that they do is phoning us and asking us to buy US$ 10.000 of shares of a certain enterprise. They wait for a second and then we confirm the purchase. 

What was the operation like at the beginning of the enterprise?
MP: It used to be performed via telex, and before that, the orders were entered, we called the stock exchange and we told them that we wanted to buy a certain amount of a certain share. The client received the execution up to four days after, but today it is not possible to be delayed not even for a second. In the office there is a telephone central that answers the calls with a message that lasts less than 30 seconds before we take the line. One or two years ago, some clients asked us to take out the central because in those 30 seconds the share moved and they wanted to go directly to the table. We put several direct lines to the table (where the screens and the monitors for executing the orders directly on the stock exchange are) where they answer you and the conversation is: hello, buy that share. But even this way, sometimes it was difficult, for example at the time when the New York Stock Exchange opened when everybody wants to buy or sell shares. The number of people who invest in the American stock exchange is increasing.  

Why is this?
MP: Mostly because of the information's democratization. Anyone who has a computer and access to the Internet knows which the companies that quote are, what those companies do, in which area they are, the last balances, what the analysts' opinions are. When having all that information, the people know more about the topic, study more and invest on this type of actives such as the shares that quote in the American Stock Exchange.

How many people invest in the stock exchange?
MP: There are clients that invest in public bonds, in investment funds, but those who invest in actives of shares in the American Stock Exchange are almost a thousand.

When did the growth start?
MP: The biggest growth of clients that invest in American shares started four or five years ago. 
VP: Maybe it was with the on line business' development in the United States. The first on line broker in North America was Charles Schwab five years ago, and there, a new story started. In the past, you could operate with big brokers, big accounts and volumes, by phoning the consultants that charged by percentage. But Schwab had the vision for changing the history forever, he gave the investor the possibility of taking his own decision and that the cost is fixed. Two years later the great brokers' corporations had to incorporate an on line broker, because if not they would stop existing.

What was the impact like?
MP: It was so big that today these brokers on line have the 20% of the shares' market; this is to say every five orders that enter the stock exchange one comes from these brokers on line. So in the last five years they had a great growth. 
VP: The stock exchange has existed for more than 200 years and the brokers on line took a fifth of the market in only five years.  

Does it mean that one business is leaving its place to let the other work?
VP: No. The possibility is opened to a great deal of minor investors, from 0 to US$ 15.000, which used to be practically impossible, because a large stock exchange house in the United States did not open accounts for less than US$ 50.000 or US$ 100.000, because its benefits were by percentage. Now, the game rules have changed, it does not matter if somebody is going to buy US$ 500 thousand or US$ 3 thousand. With Paullieronline we focus on a public that is more retailer than the historical one. With the product that ARTech is coming up with, our competence is the American on line brokers.