Times are hard so when thinking about investing money, many look for the cheapest and most effective way possible. This environment paves the way for the online trading revolution.
Before the online trading revolution, people called up their full service broker who would then enter it into their system which was connected to the trading floor. Today, in comparison, much of the trading is done online and at a significant discount. "Many, if not all brokers are now offering online services with unique trading platforms", according to Wikipedia.
When researching the investing scene, one may turn to the internet to find information on several brokers available as well as the minimums required to actually get involved. On MSN, a newbie investor may be interested in, "The Broker Center," which shows several big trading companies that show their differences or how to ,"Start Investing With Just $100." Even still, people are penny pinching and reluctant to even start there, because maybe they're not all that sure of how it works or they're uncomfortable with the set-up which is what has led to start-up companies like Loyal3 to develop. Loyal3 allows someone to invest with as little as $10 a month towards a company's stock. Nasdaq actually paired up with the start-up to take advantage of Loyal3's vision. With Loyal3, you do not have to start a brokerage account or pay any fees. They take advantage of social networking with Facebook, really making the stock market user-friendly to small investors. Signing up through their Facebook app is just as easy as buying book from Amazon.
With all the available ways one can access online, it's interesting to find out that there are, “More Wireless Devices Than People,” according to the New York Times. This clearly illustrates the shift of communication becoming more digitally dependent than face-to-face. If you want to buy laundry detergent, pay your credit cart bill, or trade a stock, you can do it all online. With the economy shift as well, it's no surprise people are looking for the easiest way possible to get it done.