Online trading for the retail market has exploded in popularity
in the past 10 years. The industry drivers in the online trading
world definitely be the spread betting providers with the market
leader IG Index continuing to push the boundaries for their clients
allowing trades to be placed not only online but also across mobile
devices.
Up until 2001 nearly all trades from retail investors,
irrespective if you were trading futures, CFD's, FX or spread bets,
were placed using the telephone. Access to the market using
computers was limited to professional and institutional clients and
not seen as a tool for the retail investor. This changed late 2001
when spread betting companies Financial Spreads, IG Index and CMC
Markets launched their first online trading platforms allowing
clients to place trades using computers. This resulted in an
extraordinary increase in both the volume of business and the
number of clients signing up to their services. The retail
futures, CFD and foreign exchange providers quickly followed with
many developing online systems that not only allowed retail clients
to trade but to place their orders directly onto the exchange
(known as DMA or direct market access).
Online trading platforms are constantly evolving with many
providers allowing access not only to free real time charting
packages but to integrated automated trading systems. This has
resulted in an increase in volumes of both trades and the number
new clients who are interested in trading the markets but have time
pressures that don't allow them to spend hours in front of their
computer screens.
The recent development of the i Phone , i Pad and android phone
systems have further increased the appetite for retail traders with
IG Index and City Index reporting that almost 25% of all of their
client trades are now received across a mobile device. This number
is going only one way, as the phones and tablets become more
sophisticated so will the trading applications provided by brokers
and market makers. The demands from the retail investors will
increase and so only those companies who are prepared to invest in
new technology and provide clients with innovative, fast and
reliable systems likely to continue to grow their
businesses.