MAIN STREET TRUMPS WALL STREET

摘要

John W. Bachmann may be Merrill Lynch & Co.'s toughest competition. Far from Wall Street, he oversees the country's biggest network of brokerage offices, 8,357 at last count. As managing partner of St. Louis-based Edward Jones for the past 22 years, he has shunned the freewheeling ways of Wall Street. His firm does little investment banking, so it doesn't have the conflicts of interest that Merrill and others are trying to explain to government regulators. Its 35 research analysts cannot own stock in the industries they cover. Bachmann doesn't believe in online trading. He is not too keen on margin trading, either. And Edward Jones is winning 1,000 Merrill clients a month.