Staying with the idea that new technology merely translates more familiar rules to a new medium, US online stockbroker Datek announced this week that it had not suffered along with its customers as markets turned sharply bearish towards the end of last year.

The company said its average trades per day and the number of customer accounts rose in the last three months of 2000 as the fortunes of those customers turned sour and they struggled to make good on losses.

The truth lay within the accounts. While customer accounts were double the figure of a year earlier, the assets in them were no more than they had been at the end of 1999 and well down on the figure at the end of the third quarter 2000.

It just goes to show that stockbrokers, like bookies, just cannot lose, no matter what the platform. That's hardly surprising when you consider that they take a cut of the action no matter what is happening in the market. And a turning market in shares, as in horses, is the nearest thing to a guarantee of increased activity you'll get.

Dominic Coyle can be contacted at dcoyle@irish-times.ie