Come April 4 and the Calcutta Stock Exchange will become a fully-computerised bourse when all its A-group scrips go on-line and its Cstar project is executed.

Once all shares go on-line, there will be no need for broker assistants or small brokers to transact business on behalf of big dealers.

Under the open outcry system, large orders by big players would send share prices shooting through the roof as all players would know the identity of the buyer or seller. Therefore, large operators used small brokers to transact business on their behalf.

When transactions are effected on-line, trading is disembodied and the fear of prices skyrocketing is eliminated as no one knows the identity of the operator.

Thus, the need of small brokers to act as go-between for the big frys is eliminated.

Jobbers will also have a hard time, according to brokers at CSE, when trading becomes faceless.

Experienced players say that in the open outcry system, a broker would refrain from selling when a large operator places a buy order. This is because a rise in share prices would be anticipated and he would wait for prices to go up before selling.

Under on-line trading, however, the broker or jobber giving buy and sell quotes has no way of knowing the identity of the operator and may easily end up selling just before the price shoots up, thus skirting possible profits.

Small brokers said the only way to bypass the problem is to buy and sell in huge volumes. But for this, substantial amount cash is needed which they just do not have.

One route through which this can be obtained is corporatisation and linking up with a partner able to provide funds.

However, the experience of broker firms elsewhere show that front-runners book profits for individuals at the expense of the broker firm. So they are wary of the corporatisation route.

Undercutting of brokerages also adds to the woes of the small broker. CSE players complained that where they were charging one per cent brokerage, NSE brokers were charging fees as low as .05-.025 per cent.

Some brokers, they said, are even waiving brokerage and charging only transaction costs provided investors keep a certain amount of advance with the them.

In this way the broker earns interest and lures clients with the incentive of zero brokerage.

CSE brokers said that this was the age of mammoth outfits. Only big brokers with significant money power will survive the onslaught of the computerised age, just as only big bourses with the ability to set up trade guarantee funds and computerise operations will operate in the new age.