Virtual Stock Market Trading
The old images of stock markets used to be large cavernous stock exchange floors where brokers excitedly carry on with their business of buying and selling stocks.
With the advent of computers and the internet, online stock trading took over the market and made conventional brokerage move into the new frontiers of the future. It brought with it ease, speed, and convenience to the industry.
Reach and Edge
When online stock trading came into being in the mid 90s, it drastically transformed the financial services industry.
Its initial edge was in creating a virtual world of trading that is within the reach of anyone from anywhere.
Lower Commissions to Pay
Online stock trading gave brokers easy and economical way in carrying out their trade. The boom it created was also due to lower commission structure compared to the old conventional brokerage.
Aside from the tremendous increase of online trading accounts, there was also a major increase in the volume of transactions. More and more people became aware of the many benefits afforded by the new online style of doing stock market business.
Easy Access
With the advent of the internet, online stock trading brokers all have easy access to the market. With an online stock trading account, a trader can check out real time stock quotes and historical stock price trends.
With a click or two, they can assess the market analysis and do their own researches on various firms and companies. With chat rooms and other forums, brokers can readily interact with other online stock trading brokers.
Less Expense
With online stock trading account, it is more economical than asking for help from conventional traders who naturally want to make money out of their clients.
In online trading, brokers only charge a fixed amount of commission in their work. In comparison, fees and commissions of traditional brokerage houses turned out to be more expensive.
Doing Away with the Middlemen
Online stock trading brokers have eliminated the line of middlemen involved in stock trading. It allowed traders to invest wisely and make the old business of stock trading easier and simpler.
It also allowed traders to directly contact online stock trading brokers from anywhere at anytime without any trouble.
Wider Investment Choices
Today, the traders have a bigger and wider latitude in terms of investments. They can invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, mortgages, insurance, derivatives, futures, options, and others.
When trading became online, the choices offered extensive variety of products to the traders.
Rich information source
Online stock trading had bridged the gap between the traders and the commercial market. With the internet, the traders and the investors can extract any information related to stocks, companies, market trends, and the like.
Quick Deal Executions
Today’s computer-aided transactions have speeded up the process of commerce, and not just in online stock trading. Things are now available and accessible to the traders.
Moreover, the processes that sometimes took days and months before can now be completed and done in a matter of minutes.
Online stock trading is a boon to today’s stock market and the whole business of buying and selling. Today, things are much easier, faster, and nearer, all of which translates to convenience.
The first continuous trading on a stock exchange was done in the 17th century in Amsterdam. Prior to this, in 13th century France, product traders used to meet in a house which they later called “Bruges Bourse”. Nowadays, stock markets can be found in most countries but the biggest markets can be found in the United States, Japan, China, and the United Kingdom.
Long before the advent of online stock market investments, trading was done by individual buyers and sellers. These are business persons who do their own trading activities. Later on, as market participants in the stock market increased, stock brokers began to represent individuals and other big firms who are interested to buy stocks. A wealthy businessman has his own set of stock brokers representing his business interest in the world’s big stock markets. Brokerage houses were then established to cater to the increasing demands of the trend. These big firms are called brokerage houses and examples include Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and Charles Schwab.
Due to the Internet’s capacity to connect many people from different places at the same time, the process of buying and selling stocks has become faster, easier and less expensive. Online stock market investments have been availed by many investors because of its unique features compared to the traditional stocks trading.
Online stock market investments are easier to do because if a buyer or seller decides to do online trading, he does not have to pay a stock broker anymore. Stock brokers can charge up to as much as $100 per trade, while online stock market brokers can charge as low as $10 per trade. Online stock market trading allows investors to do all transactions in front of the computer. An online stock market investor can also check and manage with his stock portfolio in real time using a computer. Several online stock trading companies have opened their websites to cater to the demands of their increasing clientele.
Online stock market investing has made the business of trading easier, faster, and cheaper. An investor who does online trading will not need to call his broker to conduct business. All he has to do is go the stock broker’s website and indicate the stocks he wants to buy or sell and these orders will be processed in real time.
These online stock market brokers or stock market websites, as they are called, also contains a lot of additional services in their websites. They can provide online stock market traders with stock market information, and other relevant insights.