The advent of the internet has increased many manual ordinary activities to be done online like research, shopping, and investing thus giving birth to online trading.

Online trading or self-directed investing involves entering your order online through an online broker also known as discount brokers. Online trading reduces costs to the investor because the advisory capacity of the stock broker is limited or removed (so online brokers charge less than ordinary stock brokers) but leaves the investor with most of the decision making thus the term, self-directed.

The continuous growth of the internet has also seen to the continuous growth of online trading. The online investors and online broker now have access to more and more powerful tools to manage stocks, mutual funds and other securities as the internet grows more and more advanced. People now use more and more mobile devices like cell phones, smart phones, laptops, and more recently, iPads thus giving birth to more mobile trading. Online trading has grown more due to the growth of mobile trading which used to be practiced primarily over landlines and faxes. Now investors see everything in real-time through websites that show ticker-tape stock prices and other information.

There are plenty of online trading companies available on the internet. It’s mainly up to the investor to seek and choose which one to utilize. These companies usually differ in the number of products and services they offer like online stock trading, mutual funds management, foreign exchange services and management of IRA accounts.

Online trading companies also differ in the tools that they offer. Many are racing in providing better tools for mobile trading (streaming news and quotes, stock calendars, interactive charts and investment forecasts) due to the increased mobility of potential investors because of more and more advanced gadgets that have access to the internet.