Discount Broker
Low-cost alternative to the commissions and other fees for buying and selling stock through public exchanges. You could conceivably trade stock with your neighbor with no commission, but brokers and brokerages perform a lot of useful banklike services, such as paying interest on deposits and extending loans. Schwab pioneered the discount field in the 1970s, undercutting the hundreds of dollars per transaction traditionally charged by full-service brokers (Merrill Lynch is the biggest), which ideally offer more personalized service. In the past five years, self-directed online trading has made $15 and $30 discount fees the norm, creating room for a brand-new breed of deep-discount brokers, who pare services to the trivial and charge as little as $5 to effect trades.

IPO
An initial public offering. When a privately held company tries to raise money, it may "go public," by selling shares that can be traded on the stock market. Investment-banker underwriters grease the process beforehand by shopping the company to big stock buyers (called the road show, which takes place during the company's SEC-mandated "quiet period"), then afterward by issuing analyst recommendations extolling the company's prospects. IPOs have been changed by the Internet: shares are being allocated more democratically through online brokers. At the same time, the craze for anything with .com in its name has turned the IPO market into an old-fashioned gold rush.