These days just about everybody chooses to trade stocks online. The pure convenience of online stock trading is simply unbeatable. This is not to say that you should not maintain a relationship with a real, live, stockbroker, especially if they have been helping your account grow. What many individual traders and investors have found, however, is that they can get just as good a return on their investments by making their own trading decisions. This is caused an unprecedented growth in the number of self-directed stock traders and stock investors.
Trading stocks online has numerous advantages. Besides the convenience of being able trade from anywhere in the world as long as you have a computer and an Internet connection, there's also the advantage of being able to see your account equity at a glance. When you login to your online trading account the equity in your portfolio can be seen to update in real time. I'm not suggesting that you spend your time watching your equity change second by second. The whole point is though that it is very convenient to be able to see your equity based upon real-time market conditions.
The tremendous enhancements and advances in Internet security have taken away the discomfort barrier for many and led them to trade stocks online. I would make a suggestion to anyone that you always have a backup method of contacting your stock brokerage should your Internet connection ever fail you. An example of a backup would be being able to use a phone to call your broker to place orders.
If you're nervous about trading stocks online most all brokers will offer you a free trial of their stock trading platform for you to familiarize yourself with. I would suggestion trying several of these platforms in order to see which best suits your trading style as not all platforms are created equal. By using such a demo account you allow yourself to become familiar with the mechanics of using your selected brokers online trading platform. A platform that is intuitive and easy to use may well cause you to choose a particular broker based upon the platform. One of the best uses of your demo account is to help you to eliminate order entry mistakes. If you're unfamiliar with a platform it would be easy to hit buy when you want to sell or sell when you want to buy.
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