The first online dealing services available in the UK were little more than an alternate way of contacting your stockbroker. If you were going to buy or sell shares instead of calling on the telephone you sent what amounted to little more than a glorified e-mail. On receipt of your message a stockbroker would read it and then make the trade for you. E-mail is obviously faster than the Royal Mail but such services offered few attractions over existing telephone-based dealing operations.

However since the late 1990s the landscape has been transformed. Companies such as TD Waterhouse Barclays Stockbrokers and Selftrade now offer services which allow you to execute your own trades.

See also...Moneyextra.coms online trading centre

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