In the pre-Internet days you had no choice but to place all of your stock orders through a stockbroker, at a premium fee, and you needed your stock to appreciate in value 3% just so you could break even. Moreover, back then most people were more likely to follow the stockbroker's advice than trust their own judgment.
The article discusses a) doing stock trading on the Internet as opposed to trading through a broker, and b) whether the brokers' expert advice truly helps you.