In late April the company received regulatory approval for a new brokerage subsidiary, Independent Research Group, to offer investors research that is untainted by the investment banking and proprietary trading conflicts that exist at bulge-bracket firms. "Our focus has shifted from serving the retail investor to the professional investor," explains Thomas Clarke, TheStreet's CEO. "We're seeing more buy-side firms opening up to independent research." It also happens, of course, that a host of government regulators last month finalized a $1.4 billion global settlement of charges that major Wall Street firms issued misleading research. The ten firms in the pact are required to pay $432.5 million over the next five years to provide their clients with research that is independent of conflicts. Coincidence? Absolutely, says Paul Noglows, 39, the former J.P. Morgan Chase telecommunications analyst who will head the new research boutique. "This was talked about last summer, long before the settlement. It has nothing to do with it," says Noglows, who was hired in November, one month before the settlement was announced. "We'll be the voice that differs from the herd, and most of the stocks will be small." Currently, IRG has four analysts, each covering half a dozen stocks. The unit has begun to accept commissions from a handful of buy-side investors as payment for its research, but Noglows declines to provide specifics.