Darcy and the management team at DLJdirect felt prepared to enter the fray. (See Exhibits 16 and 17 for data on DLJdirect's financial performance.) They knew they had a strong message. Many thirdparty rating services, like Gomez Advisors, had placed DLJdirect at the top, or near the top, of online brokerages in terms of reliability and quality of service. The company had recently received a number-one ranking from Barron's, Time, Worth, and J.D. Powers. With the tracking stock IPO proceeds, DLJdirect could fund a bigger marketing budget. But given competitors' aggressive plans, was $65 million in marketing for 1999 enough to maintain DLJdirect's market share? And how much should the company spend on marketing during the year 2000?