Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Creating Digital Finance for the Many : The Emergence of Online Brokerage Firms in Sweden, 1996-2000

Larsson Heidenblad, David LU and Vikström, Axel LU (2025) In History of Intellectual Culture 2025(4). p.27-52
Abstract
This article analyses how a newly established set of actors – online brokerage firms (OBFs) – sought to popularise stock trading among the Swedish populace in the late 1990s. During this period, internet usage took off and stock markets surged rapidly up until the dotcom bubble burst in 2000. Sweden was at the forefront of both these international developments, and we analyse the intimate connections between digital and financial practices emerging during these years. By exploring three thematic areas – the democratisation of stock trading, the subjectification of the everyman online investor, and training on how to navigate the online trading landscape – we analyse how the communicative strategies adopted by OBFs interplayed with business... (More)
This article analyses how a newly established set of actors – online brokerage firms (OBFs) – sought to popularise stock trading among the Swedish populace in the late 1990s. During this period, internet usage took off and stock markets surged rapidly up until the dotcom bubble burst in 2000. Sweden was at the forefront of both these international developments, and we analyse the intimate connections between digital and financial practices emerging during these years. By exploring three thematic areas – the democratisation of stock trading, the subjectification of the everyman online investor, and training on how to navigate the online trading landscape – we analyse how the communicative strategies adopted by OBFs interplayed with business journalists and the established mass media to create a new market. Our study underscores the importance for historians of knowledge to analyse the workings of self-interested commercial actors and their attempts to make, facilitate, and expand new markets by means of the circulation of knowledge. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
History of Intellectual Culture
volume
2025
issue
4
pages
26 pages
ISSN
1492-7810
DOI
10.1515/9783111636726-002
project
Lund Centre for the History of Knowledge
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
2450332a-4f0a-49ab-9189-c3a7c9acb8ca
date added to LUP
2025-12-19 08:13:39
date last changed
2026-01-16 14:25:06
@article{2450332a-4f0a-49ab-9189-c3a7c9acb8ca,
  abstract     = {{This article analyses how a newly established set of actors – online brokerage firms (OBFs) – sought to popularise stock trading among the Swedish populace in the late 1990s. During this period, internet usage took off and stock markets surged rapidly up until the dotcom bubble burst in 2000. Sweden was at the forefront of both these international developments, and we analyse the intimate connections between digital and financial practices emerging during these years. By exploring three thematic areas – the democratisation of stock trading, the subjectification of the everyman online investor, and training on how to navigate the online trading landscape – we analyse how the communicative strategies adopted by OBFs interplayed with business journalists and the established mass media to create a new market. Our study underscores the importance for historians of knowledge to analyse the workings of self-interested commercial actors and their attempts to make, facilitate, and expand new markets by means of the circulation of knowledge.}},
  author       = {{Larsson Heidenblad, David and Vikström, Axel}},
  issn         = {{1492-7810}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{27--52}},
  series       = {{History of Intellectual Culture}},
  title        = {{Creating Digital Finance for the Many : The Emergence of Online Brokerage Firms in Sweden, 1996-2000}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783111636726-002}},
  doi          = {{10.1515/9783111636726-002}},
  volume       = {{2025}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}