Online Market Trading

Have real-time stock charts and real-time quotes displayed on multiple monitors always been available for online trading? Was it always easy to track hundreds of stock and options symbols at the same time, in real time? Of course not. The entire world of online trading barely existed 15 years ago, and at that time it was almost entirely limited to professional stock traders. Brokerage platforms and websites delivering real-time streaming stock quotes and stock charts were simply not available yet for the average Joe.

Besides, it didn't really matter because the computer hardware available to the average person at the time was just not capable of running the types of modern trading applications that feature real-time stock quotes, real-time charts, real-time news, and the long list of "real-time" things that we have come to know and enjoy. So, how exactly did we get here?

The Power of the PC

Thanks to the geniuses in Silicon Valley and other spots around the globe, the power of the personal computer has grown exponentially over the past 20 years. Despite this, very few day-traders and active investors actually use the full power of their personal computer systems.

Most day-traders run a single piece of software on a mid-level computing machine which, at this point, means a computer more than 2 years old. This software is usually a brokerage-provided trading application that combines a brokerage service (i.e. a way to actually execute trades) with tools for news, charting, and analysis.

Usually, these applications are fairly comprehensive and are a great starting point for any trader. Besides using a single piece of software, most stock market traders get all of their information and analysis from the internet. However, the internet is not always the best method for gathering data.