1	STOCK TRADING ON THE INTERNET December 2006
2	How Did the Name “Wall Street” Come About? In 1653, the British built a 12-foot stockade fence wall to protect the early settlers against attacks from Native Americans. The wall was torn down in 1685 and a new street called “Wall Street” was built in its place.
3	How Did Wall Street Become Well-Known in the Security Trading Community? Wall Street became well-known with the emergence of two stock exchanges: The New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange. Today, these exchanges facilitate billions of dollars worth of stock trades each day.
4	The Infamous 1929 and 1987 Stock Crashes The 1929 crash triggered the Great Depression. On October 19, 1987 (known as Black Monday), the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered the biggest single-day loss in the stock market’s history.
5	Prior to the Internet Stock orders placed by customers were written up on buy or sell order slips. These order slips were then passed from one person to the next within the brokerage firm for processing. Stock orders were then transmitted over the firm’s private telephones to the Exchange floor for execution. The executed orders were wired back to the firm’s main office and eventually telephoned back to the branch office where the customers’ orders were received.
6	With the Advent of the Internet Today, stock exchanges rely heavily on trading systems to electronically process stock orders. These orders are electronically received and are exposed to the open-outcry auction market that yields the best pricing for its customers.
7	Positive Aspects of Online Trading Low commission cost. Investors can trade from the privacy and comfort of their homes. Abundant online financial tools and information are available to investors. Day trading is made possible.
8	Negative Aspects of Online Trading Heavy traffic on the Internet can slow down trade executions. An investor’s computer, modem, or Internet Service Provider could be faulty. A broker-dealer’s server can have a slow response or be overloaded. An investor bases his investment decision on bad information he received from posted messages on online message boards or in chat rooms.
9	Conclusions Internet trading is the trend of the future. The benefits of it far outweigh the negatives.
10	Work Cited http://www.stocks-investing.com/stock-market-history.html (This website cited the emergence of the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange.) http://stock-market.superiorinvestor.net/stock-market-history.html (Gives a brief history of Wall Street and tells about the 1929 and the 1987 stock crashes.) http://h20247.www2.hp.com/NonStopComputing/downloads/NYSE.pdf (How stock orders are handled today with the widespread of the Internet.) http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1318/is_n10_v52/ai_21136396/pg_2 (Shows the different aspects to online trading.) http://www.findarticles.com/articles/mi_m1365/is_n9_v26/ai_18132752 (Why online trading become so popular with stock investors.)