History

The Quotron 800 was one of the first trading terminals used by mutual funds, hedge funds, and wealthy individuals who could afford bulky personal computers and expensive data feeds. By the 1990s, improvements in personal computing and communications technology shrunk hardware and slashed the cost of information delivery by orders of magnitude, enabling easy access to the financial exchanges for almost anyone.

Purpose

Millions of traders handle their transactions online because it allows them to reach decisions and act upon them far more rapidly than by communicating on the phone with their broker. This direct access is also usually much cheaper.

Types

There are countless types of online traders, from longer-term speculators who buy stocks intending to hold them for multiple months, to dedicated day-traders who make hundreds of little transactions every day.

Dangers

Information overload is one of the primary dangers of online trading, as the sheer volume of news, commentary and other data available for even one stock can quickly overwhelm a trader.

Function

The future of online stock trading is likely to be more evolutionary than revolutionary. Improvements in software capability will allow trading platforms to securely migrate to ever smaller electronic platforms, and developments at stock exchanges will allow more market participants to trade directly against each other, possibly without a broker.

Source:

Waters Ten: Quotron's Legacy

Trading Platform