Technology has transformed the world faster than many of us ever thought possible, and continues to change it at a rapid pace. Nowhere is this revolution more evident than in the securities industry. The Internet has empowered individual investors with easy and convenient access to information and financial markets at nominal cost and is dramatically altering the way they manage their finances and participate in global securities markets.
The rise of Internet trading is even more astonishing when you consider that the first online brokers did not appear until 1995. Today, roughly 40 percent of all individual investors' trades are entered online, up from 17 percent in 1997. Over the next few years, experts predict that nearly all investors will use the Internet to access their financial accounts in one form or another—whether it be to research investment opportunities, trade securities or view account statements online. The Internet continues to evolve as the dominant delivery
