Personal Investing with Computer Technology Computer technology has revolutionized the way people can invest their money. Online trading has become the newest fad for people trying to get more bang for their buck. Virtually anyone with access to the Internet can set up an online brokerage account. With just a click of the mouse people can buy and sell stocks. This advanced computer technology for personal investing has its pros and cons. It has made it much easier for the average person to take care of his/her finances in an inexpensive manner. It has alos made it easier for people to become addicted to trading, which can become an expensive habit.Trading Stocks InexpensivelyOnline trading is easy and inexpensive. In comparison with traditional brokers, Internet brokers charge flat rates for transactions. The traditional full service broker usually charges the investor fees depending on how much stock they buy or sell, not to mention the commission they charge for handling the investors portfolio.Small-time investors with the know how of managing their own finaces have found online trading to be very beneficial. They now have found ways to buy individual stocks at a cheap price without paying all the fees asociated with the full service broker. These investors can go into numerous web sites to get information on any particular stock they are interested in. Many of these web sites are designed for the invstor just learning how to analyze a potential stock. For example, BigCharts.com is a technical analysis web site that will create a chart using any stock symbol and comparing with any other stock symbol. It can also compare a stock symbol with the S&P 500 Index and the NASDAQ Composite Index to give an investor an insight how a stock is doing in comparison with the industry average. These tools are very valuable for an investor to be successful in their analysis of companies, industries, and the economy.Just five years ag...
