As we baby boomers enter middle age, we've discovered the stock market.
That's at least one explanation for what many call the longest bull market in history: We're doing to stocks what we did to housing in the '70s.
There might be another explanation: the rise of the independent investor. This is the stalwart soul who buys and sells without the wisdom or intervention of the almighty broker.
Nowhere is investment empowerment more evident than on the World Wide Web, which in the past year has seen an explosion of sites offering tips, advice and online trading.
Just about any company that offers financial advice or services - from Merrill Lynch (http://www.ml.com) to The Motley Fool (http://www.fool.com) - now has a presence on the Web.
Even the search engine Yahoo! - which has been venturing into other areas such as magazine publishing - has created a one-stop investment center (http://quote.yahoo.com).
The Yahoo site, with stock quotes (delayed 15-20 minutes), performance charts, recent company news and SEC filings, is like the stocks terminals you see on your favorite broker's desk.
Check out performance
Overhear some hot stock advice on the office elevator? At the Yahoo site, you can find the ticker symbol, check the stock's 5-year, 2-year or recent performance (displayed in a chart), and see whether brokers recommend the stock. You can also check currency rates, international markets and new IPOs (initial public offerings) and load a stock ticker into your Windows 95 task bar. Download the software, and you can enter Yahoo! chat rooms to pick up more suspect stock tips.
Each of the three major stock markets, New York (http://www.nyse.com), American (http://www.amex.com) and Nasdaq (http://www.nasdaq.com), has a site that offers basic market information and delayed quotes.
Nasdaq offers an online portfolio tracking feature (build a virtual stock portfolio and watch it grow - or shrink). And the Nasdaq site soon will add NYSE and Amex quotes.
Financial publications also have joined the rush to the Net, with all the usual suspects - Money Magazine (http://pathfinder.com/money/), Barron's (http://www.barrons.com), Kiplinger (http://www.kiplinger.com) - offering online versions.
The newest is Forbes, which Monday opened a new site, Digital Tool (http://www.forbes.com). In a column on the site, president and editor-in-chief (and erstwhile presidential candidate) Steve Forbes promises ''tools not text'' which means that the site will offer indexes and databases for investment information.
The site repackages the lists that Forbes magazine is so famous for: the richest folks, the best mutual funds, executive compensation - even The Big Apple's best restaurants. Other ''digital tools'' are articles on high-tech, online investing and ''the good life.''
Online trading
So why are these companies giving away valuable investment information on the Internet?
Online investing is one reason. Discount broker Charles Schwab, which was one of the first major houses to offer trading online (http://www.schwab.com), offers a 20 percent discount for trades made from the Web site. It claims to have 700,000 online accounts with $50 billion in assets.
Quickly gaining on Schwab's success is E*Trade (http://www.etrade.com), which a little more than a year ago launched a Web site and an aggressive marketing campaign (''Boot your broker!'' said one ad) for online trading.
Not to be left behind, most brokerages and investment companies have opened Web sites offering online services of one form or another. Some, like Merrill Lynch, offer online access to your account and broker. Others, like Fidelity (http://www.fidelity.com) let you track your accounts and add stocks or mutual funds with online trades.
The other reason is advertising. If the Web is the province of the upper-middle-classman, as some claim, how better to attract those with money than investment advice? Forbes, for instance, signed up six big sponsors for its site (including BMW and Stolichnaya vodka), and Yahoo! has a banner ad on every stock page.
E-mail Charles Brewer with questions, comments and suggestions at CBrewer@enquirer.com Charles Brewer's columns can be found athttp://enquirer.com/columns/brewer