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To mark its 10 years in business, TradeKing Group reflected on the biggest and boldest investing shifts that have taken place since 2005:
10. Complicated Pricing Bows Out
The days of complicated multi-tiered investing fees and commissions in tiny print becomes a thing of the past, as the industry moves towards low, flat, ?plain English? fees.
9. Social Media Storms the Markets
With the rise of social media and the integration of social tools into online investing platforms, independent investors no longer need to go it alone and can instead learn from the successes and miscues of their peers. Further, social media becomes a self-service channel for investors, enabling the sharing of knowledge and insights among communities. It also becomes a public venue for comments, the occasional hoax, and live comparison-shopping.
8. Independent Traders Add Options to Their Toolkit
Thanks to an increased emphasis on options education, more traders add options as a potential strategy in their arsenal to navigate volatile financial markets.?
7. Volatile Markets Have Become the New Normal
Volatile markets have resulted in traders no longer taking a ?set-it-and-forget-it? approach, but rather paying closer attention to the markets and their holdings ? being more proactive and opportunistic as a whole.
6. Mobile Ushers in Anytime, Anywhere Trading
With the advent of the iPhone, along with tablets, phablets and other devices, traders can now execute from the palms of their hand ? whether they?re cruising at 35,000 feet, at the beach, or anywhere in between.?
5. Traders School Themselves ? and Each Other
More online educational resources ? including live events, webinars, and blogs ? enable self-directed traders to spot and capitalize on breakout trends and leverage new strategies to take their trading to more sophisticated levels.?
4. Retail Traders Take Cues from the Pros
Access to capabilities such as advanced charting, real-time quotes and data feeds, as well as an expanded array of asset classes, help to lower the barriers that have long stood between Wall Street and Main Street investors.
3. The Need for Speed: The Advent of Programmed Trading?
Retail investors finally gain access to algorithms once only available to institutional traders; programmed trading breaks up large orders by executing those orders throughout the day, rather than submitted at once, which would incur market impact.?
2. Futures and Forex Extend Trading Strategies
More traders turn to asset classes such as Futures and Forex to extend trading strategies, take advantage of new market opportunities.?
1. The Rise of the Robos
The financial advisory world gets turned on its head with the rise of the robo investors and other online advisory services ? investors benefit from lower investment minimums, convenience and low cost without sacrificing portfolio performance.? ?
TradeKing has also launched a 10th Anniversary microsite that highlights key firm milestones, a ?then-and-now? photo tribute to its founding team, personal stories of individuals whose lives have been impacted by TradeKing, and other anniversary data points and visuals.