From paper to pixels: how technology is empowering the way we invest.

The stock market was an enigmatic and appealing place to invest. So in the mid eighties   I decided to try it out. We could buy and sell by visiting the broker's office, where a slip was filled out for the transaction, the broker invested on your behalf. Once you got to know the broker well, a deposit could be made and transactions could then be done on telephone. Though telephones, being fixed line, insisted that you walk to them unlike the mobile phones, which are always with you (See my blog-post 'The ever changing telephone') . The whole process of investing took time. It could not be hastened.

The shares and stocks which you purchased came by post.

Information for investment decisions was gleaned from newspapers. Not much information. The broker would give some tips and recommendation. The broker had all the information and you had all the risk.

In this manner I traded on the stock exchange for one complete year. At the end of that year there was no gain at all.

I left investing in stocks.

And never invested again.

Till now.

A few months back I activated my De-mat (De-materialized) account.

I remembered the lack of information of my earlier experience of many years back. And, therefore,  decided to read about investing.

There was a lack of information then. Now there was a flood. Easily available thanks to the internet. The way we sought and read information and learnt has now changed (See my blog post 'A way to learn'). Earlier we sought information no information seeks us.

Having read about value investing. Which, I found appealing, I decided to invest.

I took the plunge. The broker has now become a software, the De-mat account. Investing is no longer a mystery. Shares and stocks move into your account and out of it digitally. Everything is recorded instant to instant. Trips to the broker have been replaced by clicks on the computer keyboard. The fixed line telephone has become a smartphone (see my blog post 'The ever changing telephone'). We used to speak to the broker on the fixed line telephone and now the broker speaks to us digitally, instant to instant, through an app on our smartphone.

Earlier the broker had the information, and we had the risk. Now we have both the information and the risk.

Investing has moved from paper to pixels.

Made possible by technology.