Morgan Stanley's Discover Brokerage Direct (DBD) moved from fourth to second in Gomez Advisors' Spring 1999 Internet Broker Scorecard. This marks DBD's third straight Top 5 finish on the Scorecard. DBD received an overall score of 6.83 out of ten, second only to DLJDirect with a score of 7.65.

Gomez Advisors ranks online brokerages based on user questionnaires, telephone interviews with online brokers and customer services representatives and an evaluation of the Internet site itself. Gomez then translates this feedback into an overall score and five category scores. In addition, Gomez ranks online brokerages on how well they address the needs of particular types of investors. DBD scored as follows:

Category Score (out of 10.00)    Customer Type Score (out of 10.00) Overall Score 6.83    Hyper-active Trader 6.91 Ease of Use 7.33    Serious Investor 6.88 Customer Confidence 6.36    Life Goal Planner 7.17 On-Site Resources 7.75    One-Stop Shopper 6.13 Relationship Services 5.58        Overall Cost 7.13

In its commentary accompanying the Scorecard, Gomez notes, "Today, [DBD] boasts many industry-leading features for many of our customer profiles: real-time updates of holdings and buying power for Hyperactive Traders, well-integrated market data and Morgan Stanley [Dean Witter] research for Serious Investors, and bonds and life-event planning tools for Life Goal Planners."

For more information, please visit Gomez Advisors, Inc.'s website,www.gomez.com.