Now, plenty of "common" people own stock. Online trading has given anyone who has a computer, enough money to open an account and a reasonably good financial history the ability to invest in the market. You don't have to have a personal broker or a disposable fortune to do it, and most analysts agree that average people trading stock is no longer a sign of impending doom.
The market has become more accessible, but that doesn't mean you should take online trading lightly. We'll look at the different types of online trading accounts.
The market has become more accessible, but that doesn't mean you should take online trading lightly. We'll look at the different types of online trading accounts.
One of the simplest ways to understand electronic trading is to imagine that you want to buy some stock/shares .
Before you can buy, however, you have to open a brokerage account. There are dozens of companies that allow you to do electronic trading, including E-Trade etc. These companies are called broker dealers, and they give you access to the stock exchanges (Bursa Malaysia).
Without a brokerage account, you can't trade stocks.
So, as the only entry points to the stock markets, remisier play a critical role in the process. As such, they're highly regulated by the SC in order to prevent fraud and mismanagement.
So, as the only entry points to the stock markets, remisier play a critical role in the process. As such, they're highly regulated by the SC in order to prevent fraud and mismanagement.
Here are some of the things that broker dealers do:
Make sure you're allowed to trade stocks when you sign up for an account. That is, they check to make sure you're old enough, you have money in your account and you understand the risks of stock trading. This is part of the regulatory nature of broker dealers./remisier.
Provide the servers that allow you do your web-based trading.
Provide the computers systems that keep track of all the accounts. Like a bank, the broker dealer /remisier knows how much money every account has. He also keeps track of all the stocks you own and may make loans by offering margin accounts.
Provide the computers systems that keep track of all the accounts. Like a bank, the broker dealer /remisier knows how much money every account has. He also keeps track of all the stocks you own and may make loans by offering margin accounts.
Keep track of your trading to make sure you aren't doing anything illegal and aren't buying more stock than the balance of your account allows. They also make sure that appropriate tax records are kept.
Provide stock quotes. The broker dealer /remisier knows exactly how much stocks are buying and selling for with up-to-the-minute accuracy.
Provide stock quotes. The broker dealer /remisier knows exactly how much stocks are buying and selling for with up-to-the-minute accuracy.
Interface with the different stock markets to make the actual trades.
The broker dealers provide a very useful simplification process for the stock exchanges: Since the dealer handles all the money, all the accounts and much of the regulatory and tax activities, the exchanges don't have to worry about any of these things. All the exchanges have to do is trade stocks, and they do so with complete assurance from the broker dealers that the traders are legitimate.
The broker dealers provide a very useful simplification process for the stock exchanges: Since the dealer handles all the money, all the accounts and much of the regulatory and tax activities, the exchanges don't have to worry about any of these things. All the exchanges have to do is trade stocks, and they do so with complete assurance from the broker dealers that the traders are legitimate.
So let's make a trade. Since we're talking about electronic trading, the first step is to sit down at your keyboard and log in to your brokerage account. Once you log in, regardless of the broker dealer, you'll be able to do several things:
Look at your account to see how much money you have and how many shares of stock you have in your portfolio.
Pull up stock quotes to see the current buy and sell prices of any stock.
Enter an order to buy or sell a stock.
The systems that make this Web interface possible are Web servers very much like the servers for any Internet site. There may need to be hundreds of Web server machines -- a large broker dealer can have millions of customers. And the Web servers need to be operating with secure connections to protect privacy. But beyond that, the servers can be fairly ordinary.
Enter an order to buy or sell a stock.
The systems that make this Web interface possible are Web servers very much like the servers for any Internet site. There may need to be hundreds of Web server machines -- a large broker dealer can have millions of customers. And the Web servers need to be operating with secure connections to protect privacy. But beyond that, the servers can be fairly ordinary.
So let's imagine you want to buy 100 shares of the ABC company. You check the price of that stock on the quote screen and see that it costs RM20.40 to buy it at this moment. You enter in an order to buy 100 shares at RM20.40 a share.
Your broker dealer will transmit your order to a stock exchange/Bursa Malaysia. If the ABC company trades on the Bursa Malaysia, the order goes there. Inside the BURSA MALAYSIA, there's a computer that's dedicated to handling all the orders coming from your broker dealer. (Since there are several hundred broker dealers dealing on the BURSA MALAYSIA, there are several hundred dedicated broker dealer machines.)
Your broker dealer will transmit your order to a stock exchange/Bursa Malaysia. If the ABC company trades on the Bursa Malaysia, the order goes there. Inside the BURSA MALAYSIA, there's a computer that's dedicated to handling all the orders coming from your broker dealer. (Since there are several hundred broker dealers dealing on the BURSA MALAYSIA, there are several hundred dedicated broker dealer machines.)
Having received your order from your broker dealer, the BURSA will try to match your buy order up with a sell order from someone else. If it can find a match, you'll have executed a stock trade. If not, your trade will sit on the exchange waiting for a matching order.
Now, the BURSA sends a message back to the broker dealer saying the trade is complete. He updates your account information, withdraws money from your account and changes your portfolio to reflect your new stock.
