If your father used to be a trader, chances are his life was hugely different from the life of a modern trader. In the old days you would study the newspaper every day and then phone a broker if you wanted to open a trade or close one. There was no possibility to trade the stock market live.
The amount of information at your disposal was also vastly less than what it is today. The brokers were the privileged insiders who had access to market information and their advice therefore played an important role in the trading decisions of many traders.
The arrival of the Internet changed the lives of traders forever. Today we have large amounts of information available to every trader with Internet access. There are a large selection of online trading portals as well offering traders the ability to trade in stocks, commodities and currencies.
Spread trading, or spread betting as it is called in the UK, is a relative newcomer on the trading scene. With spread trading you do not actually invest in a particular instrument ‘ you only ‘bet’ on the future price moment. The system uses a live interface and you are therefore trading in real time.
The advantage of spread trading is that you can make money whether prices goes up or down. You should however correctly predict whether it will go up or down, otherwise you will still lose money. Spread trading is also a highly geared form of trading. You therefore stand to win, and lose, large amounts of money within a short period of time.
To trade the stock market live is extremely exciting. You can virtually watch the charts moving up and down in real time ‘ and see yourself making a fortune or losing one while you watch. Whether you have the risk appetite for this, only you can decide.
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