That Grant-Thornton piece linked to in the article has an interesting perspective. For example:<p>"The market impact [to the advent of online brokerage firms], unforeseen as it may have been, was devastating. Stock spreads narrowed, and the economics to broker-dealers continued to erode"<p>In summary: Broker dealers were priced out and therefore no longer provide quality research and liquidity support for small stocks which include IPOs. Therefore, no IPOs.<p>The remedy? Bring back quotes in 1/8s so trading frictions can increase again and therefore, somehow, IPOs come back. Can we give their argument a fair shake somehow? It's not making sense to me.