As it has with almost all aspects of life on the planet Earth, the internet has had a profound effect on American and global stock markets. In an industry where information means money and a few seconds time can mean increased profit, the ability to acquire and share "street buzz" about a certain company or stock performance has tremendous value.

The impact of the internet and computer technology has forever altered the climate of financial dealings around the world, changing the market day from the time between the clanging of the opening and closing bells on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), to a never-ending chase around the globe as the sun rises and sets on far-flung financial markets.

NASDAQ

Perhaps the most obvious example of the impact of emerging technologies on stock markets is the introduction in 1971 of the world's first "virtual" stock market, NASDAQ, which stands for National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations. Owned and managed by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ was extremely forward-thinking for its time. At the time, automated trading via computers was a much more cumbersome prospect than it is today.

In the beginning, NASDAQ trading relied heavily on the telephone to make the remote contacts to buy and sell stocks. Today, networked computers and the internet accomplish the task in a fraction of the time. NASDAQ is truly global in scope, with its main offices in the United States but, with branches in Canada and Japan and cooperative relationships with markets in Europe and Hong Kong. The success of this exchange that has no real market "floor" has been tremendous. NASDAQ became the largest stock market in 1999 when it passed the NYSE in terms of the volume of issues traded daily.

Day Trading

The impact of technology has had a profound impact on individual investors in addition to stock markets. Individual brokerage accounts and so-called "discount" brokerage firms offer direct access to the internet. With this has come the advert of the "day trader," a person who follows the market from their home computer, buying and selling stocks as the market rises and falls.

In short, the day trader takes on the role of the stock broker, having access to all the market review and analysis tools previously available only to the professional. While this technology gives the individual investor almost complete freedom to make instant decisions, it also presents a number of dangers. Even with all those tools, day traders generally as not as market savvy as professional stock brokers and run the risk of making mistakes that can be very costly.