Years 2010 marks 10 years of Online share trading in India. Geojit BNP Paribas was the first broker to introduce online share trading in India.  When laptops become cheaper the demand for online share trading increased. Now is the time to think about beyond that, ie, mobile share trading. It is the next big thing in India.

India is a traditional country. Indian’s are conventional in nature. When it comes to technology we are far behind to the rest of the world. Although we had tradition for centuries we are enjoying freedom only for 62 years. Our culture is unique and we celebrate unity in diversity. India is forerunner among developing countries. Economically we are more fit. India also holds a  unique stature in the world, we are the youngest country in the world. Half of our population is in between the age bracket 18-23. Which means we have huge potential in terms of growth.

Some online statistics
Online world is another world. As they showed us in matrix we will be confused which one is real. Internet offers so many facilities to it’s users. There may be difference in opinion but one thing is sure that once online world will become more prominent than the real world. Two years before the internet using population in the world crossed 1 billion mark. Which simply means one in every six of world’s population is using internet and the number is going up. In India 50 million people uses internet and it grows like anything. By 2012 the number will be 81.3 million. Indian union also taken steps to encourage students to be online, internet education is part of curriculum in almost all the states.

Share trading in India
Now a days everyone in India is aware about bull and bear (at least they can identify these terms as cliches related to stock market). More and more people in India, especially young ones,are turning towards stocks  for investment. But statistics says that of it’s massive population only less than 10 percent is involved in any kind of investment. The capital market investment population in India is less than 2 crore. It seems more and more literacy is needed in this avenue of investment. The rest 113 crore of the people may or may not invest but they do not invest in stock markets as of now, but in the future we will be forced to redraw the picture for sure.

Online share trading
During the early years of 90s National Stock Exchange of India started trading using v-sat connections. Those days it was a revolutionary change and was referred as online trading. In late 90 internet became popular in India and when 20th century became past internet use in India increased at it’s maximum pace.
With the emergence of new generation jobs people looked for new venues for investing and stock markets came first in the list. In 2004 when UPA government came into power stock markets in India gained more popularity.  The traditional way of trading by visiting the branch, calling a call centre executive etc is called offline trading in which you need a person’s assistance. internet trading removed the second person and you can trade as your own. This is the easiness that has been provided to the customer. If your bank also associated with some brokers things become more easier. You don’t want to step into a brokers office, you can do share trading at your home/office in your PC with internet connection. In future each bank will be associated with more stock brokers, customer can select suitable brokers.
Within just three years online share trading in NSE increased an unbelievable 13 percent. It is believed that the number will be double in three years. On an average 34 percent of booking in railway is done through internet and 80 percent of airline booking have also gone online. Reliance money, ICICI Direct, India Infoline, Geojit BNP Paribas, Sharekhan, Kotak Securities are the major brokers who offer online share trading facility to their clients.
High speed execution, greater flexibility and control are the main advantages of online share trading. The brokerage charges are less in online trading compared to offline trading. Customer can place orders even after the trading hours is another advantage. Real time tracking of stock prices is also possible in online share trading.

Any disadvantages
The band width menace is the main disadvantage of online share trading (it is believed that which will be solved when we enter 3G).When some big rise or fall in the stock market happens the brokers server will be down and the beloved customer will be at sea, staring at the monitor. The customer needs specific browsers and web configurations to view all the facilities provided by the broker like charts etc is another droback.
In this fast forward life online share trading is the need of the hour. The internet using community will increase day by day. Online share  trading is aiming a long innings for sure. When mobile and internet convergence take place things will change drastically. Mobile share trading will function in full swing within years. Convergence of technology only means advantage to the common man.