|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10
What ''Trader's-Mind" Has to Offer Investors |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
At no time in history has technology provided us the ease with which we could so effortlessly and cheaply make a stock trade as it has today. Part of the mentality that previously guided the long-term investor was dictated by having to go through stockbrokers and market makers, the "guardians at the gate." They were the only ones who had access to information and the means to actually make stock trades. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The cost of trading was prohibitively high for individual investors to think about frequent trading. How could you think about holding a stock for only a few weeks or a few days (let alone a few hours or minutes) when you were paying $150 to $200 or more to make a trade? How could you think about active trading when you had very limited information, and no access to quotes to even know where a stock was trading? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In the old days, if you wanted stock quotes, you had to literally sit in front of an overhead electronic ticker tape at your brokerage ofrice, inhaling the stale second-hand cigar smoke from wealthy retired men. I can remember watching the ticker tape as a teenager when visiting my stepfather on the brokerage floor. He worked for many years at Bache, in the pre-Prudential days, when it was a whole different investing world than it is today. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The hierarchy of the game heavily favored traditional brokerages, like Bache, and their brokers, who dictated how much information would be shared with clients. If there was any churning of |
|
|
|
|
|