The internet’s continued growth over the past two decades has fuelled the popularity of many industries. Creative is one such sector, but it’s far from alone. Trading the markets has been a significant area of expansion of late too, with millions of transactions made on a weekly basis, but what has sparked the move from stock market floors to smartphone apps?
Access to Information
Back in the days when, to find out how the stock markets were performing, you needed to be on the floor of a stock exchange, up-to-the-minute info was hard to come by. If that wasn’t an option, you could either make a phone call, wait for the latest news bulletin or rely on one update per day from the morning papers.
Fortunately, information about markets all over the globe has become readily available online. So much so in fact that with just a few swipes, you can compare how the Pound is performing against the Euro. This has made 24/7 trading a possibility, whilst news sites like Bloomberg can keep you updated constantly.
Access to Trading Platforms
With the proliferation of online business news outlets, there has also been an upturn in platforms for trading. Whether it’s on individual businesses’ stocks, entire stock markets, currency pairs or even commodities like gold, people can trade at their leisure at any time of the day. They can trade using any kind of device too – tablets, laptops, desktops and smartphones – none are off-limits.
Choosing the perfect trading platform is a dilemma many would-be players face. Using a website like FxPro will allow anyone with even a passing interest in making some money from the markets to do so with little effort. Different products can be traded at different levels too; platforms specific to markets and Forex can be chosen for anyone with a specific interest.
Trading tools
Regardless of which platform is used, a wealth of information on the chosen securities, currencies, indices, markets and shares is available on the same screen. The stats shown depend on what is being traded, so if someone is trading forex and wants to go long on the Pound against the US Dollar, they’ll see a couple of graphs depicting each currency’s value during the course of a day.
Having all the info needed on one screen will save the trader from having lots of tabs open on their browser. It also makes it easier to know when to stop a trade and collect any profits or minimise any potential losses.
Improved Knowledge
One of the main side effects of information becoming more accessible is that fewer people are in the dark about how the markets work. Both online and offline, the reasons behind stock markets, currencies and the like rising or falling in value are explored in greater depth and can be found within a few clicks, through various news sources.
In many ways, you don’t have to be an expert in the inner workings of the markets to trade online. By doing nothing more than just scanning the business section of a popular news website, it’s possible to become fully versed in knowing what makes the markets tick. That being said, it’s advisable to do so regularly in order to become a successful online trader.
Ease of Trading
Finally, being able to trade almost straight away has contributed enormously to the popularity of online trading. By opening a trading account and picking a platform, it’s possible to place a deposit and get started within seconds. The instantaneous nature of online trading has opened it up to many people who wouldn’t have otherwise given it a go, allowing for small and large amounts of money.
