Perspective is a curious thing. Did you know that today’s average smartphone has more computing power than the entire NASA program which successfully landed men on the moon, back in 1969? Of course, it wasn’t much of the computing but instead all the brilliant minds at work, but still. Perspective allows us to appreciate things we wouldn’t otherwise.
We make this analogy because it’s that much impressive how technology has evolved over the past few decades, and today it is a tool at the service of the global community, rather than just for selected governments and multi-million dollar companies, as it was in the wake of the 20th century. The market is constantly evolving and technology can help us to not only keep track of it but also to benefit from all these changes.
We live in an era of globalized information and integrated societies. By 2019, there will be approximately 2.66 billion unique smartphone users worldwide, followed closely by the number of social media accounts estimated by 2018, at 2.44 billion unique users in the planet. These are remarkable statistics and they help to show us our current trends as a global society.
How Technology Can Change the Industry
We as consumers, tend to take a lot of things for granted, and especially those of us so-called millennials. We do it because we were born amidst such a technological revolution, that most of these advances seem plainly ordinary and normal, so we don’t pay any special attention to them. Mobile technology is a great case study.
Users simply assume their smartphones and mobile apps will work properly and assist them with their daily tasks. Be it communication, social networking, virtual transactions, online shopping, and even online trading. Mobile services have turned into such a commodity we simply can’t imagine how our lives would be without them.
And the list just goes on. The way we analyze Big Data and integrate it with social networking to accurately get information on how a specific stratum of the population is thinking and feeling. This can be a huge tool for businesses in all industries, to help them create successful marketing campaigns.
Technology as an Aid to the Financial Industry
The finance industry stands as arguably the largest beneficiary of this technological development. We can now gather trillions of bytes of raw data which are seemingly unconnected and with proper analytics, create integrated systems where we can get a full macroscopic vision of any given market environment.
This is the main reason why banks, brokers, and other types of online trading platforms are heavily investing in the research and development of ground-breaking technological advances. Ultimately, these new products and services will reach the hands of the average consumer and in doing so, the system will make a full circle where everybody can benefit. Let’s take a closer look at online trading. There was a time where trading was limited to people with extensive financial knowledge and large amounts of investment portfolios, but those days are gone.
With the imminent rise of online trading platforms such as the UK based company CMC Markets which operates on margin trading, investors can now open Contracts for Differences (CFDs) on Forex, Shares, Indices, Commodities, and even Treasuries, with just a small amount of initial investment capital, and a few clicks away.
This turns virtually everybody with Internet access and some form of accredited payment, into potential traders, which is the main reason why the Forex volume is expected to grow by more than 40% within the next 3 years, up to an astonishing US$ 7.8 trillion traded on a daily basis.
The technological revolution is not only reshaping the industries in which they are created in, but also our society as a whole.