As stated by ‘BusinessBlogger’ on this external blogging site, online trading is a fairly new concept in the world of finance. Online discount brokers from many major banks have been springing up with the creation of online banking over the past decade. Due to the fact that I participate in online trading, and because I am very interested in self-managed investments, I found this blog quite intriguing.
‘Business Blogger’ writes about the risks associated with online investing as if it’s an entire different game of trading, that is far riskier that the conventional method. In reality, its the same game in the same markets, the key difference being you don’t have to hire a full service broker and pay enormous commissions. Moreover, the author expresses their doubts about the online security and accessibility of the trading platform, but the banks that run the discount brokerages using the same top of the line security as their online banking websites
I do agree with ‘BusinessBlogger’ in the recommendation of using professionally managed portfolios, such as mutual funds, but personally I lean more towards exchange traded funds. I have found ETF’s to be just as effective as mutual funds, with the additional convenience of trading on the exchange, and usually having lower management fee’s then mutual funds. The author’s opinion of long-term investing completely depends on the investor’s time horizon.