This course will begin with an introduction to the Internet and the institutions and new business types in the online investing industry. It will then consider the relevance of the Australian Financial Services Licensing provisions to these online market operators. The course will go on to consider the operating conditions of online brokers, and the legal implications of their customer relations. Subsequent parts of the course will cover public securities and financial products offered using electronic offer documents and the challenges to traditional exchanges from alternative trading systems. Internet fraud, market manipulation and misleading and deceptive conduct in online financial services will be covered next followed by an analysis of the enforcement and liability implications of a number of the topics previously considered during the course. Finally, the international dimension of online investing will be considered.

The course will raise cross-cutting issues: eg. behavioral finance and online investors, the loss of regulatory 'gate-keepers' ie advisory brokers; the overwhelming amounts of financial information available and new actors such as day-traders.