With the financial deregulation of the eighties and nineties, stock ownership was opened to the wider public. Whereas before this buying shares had been the preserve of financial institutions and wealthy individuals, after these reforms it was much easier for small-scale private investors to buy and sell stocks and shares. One problem that still persisted, though, was a lack of easy access to share buying mechanisms: stock brokers still had to be used to execute deals to buy or sell shares, and they often levied excessive charges for their services.
This has changed with the advent of cheap and easy to use online share dealing services. Now anyone can deal in shares once they have set up an online account: the reason for this is that the organisation they have opened the account with acts as broker, with all transactions being carried out automatically. library resource sharing In effect, the person trading in shares is their own broker, with most accounts making available many of the main operations standard stock brokers are able to carry out, such as limit orders and stop-loss orders. Of course the account holder won’t have access to the advice available from a broker offering an advisory dealing service, but online share dealing accounts usually come with a number of informational resources that more than make up for this absence.
Indeed, this useful data combined with speed of purchase or sale makes it possible for the astute investor to use their online account as an aid in developing an effective and profitable investment strategy. The stock prices available are usually real time, or at the very least have a short delay of five, ten or fifteen minutes. This allows the trader to keep track of prices, letting them buy or sell as close to their target price as possible. Access to share price histories and other useful market data can be combined with the vast range of information available on the world wide web (such as company websites, financial news and information sites, company annual reports, etc) to allow fundamental research into the any company the buyer might wish to invest in or sell shares in. Some accounts also offer free software to assist in the organisation of information gathered.
This speed of online share dealing and its increased access to information must be combined if an effective investment strategy is to be implemented. When deciding on investments, any successful strategy must be based on a number of key points:
Speed: online share trading allows much quicker trading.
Research: before shares are bought or sold it is essential that comprehensive research is undertaken, into the company in question, wider market conditions and relevant national and international events. Online accounts boost access to such information.
Timing: once effective research has been undertaken, the speed of online share dealing allows shares to be bought or sold at exactly the right time, allowing the maximisation of present or future returns.
It is evident from these points that online share dealing [http://www.sharesadvice.co.uk/onlinesharedealing.html] is more than useful to the small-scale investor: it can transform his or her investment strategy and make it much more profitable.