Forex is something most people are now aware of, and lots of people now use it as a way to try and make some extra cash by staying on top of what is going on in the world in terms of politics and economics. This wasn’t always the case, however. At one time, before broadband internet and mobile apps, forex was something only banks could really dabble in. Ordinary people had no way of buying and selling currency in real time, accessing prices, or even seeing what the news was in other parts of the world easily to make their trading decisions.
The Advent of Forex in the Mainstream
It was in the early 2000s that forex first began to creep into the minds of ordinary investors. Along with things like penny shares, it was seen as a way people could make a bit of money on top of their capital by making good trades, and was adopted as a hobby by some internet savvy people looking to make a quick buck. Back then, however, a trading session would mean time spent at their computer, potentially using an unreliable connection, and using trading systems that didn’t offer half of the functionality traders get today.
As internet connections got faster and more reliable, and as mobile apps became popular after the release of the first iPhone a decade ago, forex trading began to be seen as more viable for people on the go who weren’t necessarily statistics experts or finance gurus. Of course, a lot of what made this possible wasn’t just the consumer technology in their hands, but the financial technology that could be used by forex brokers to develop platforms just about anybody could use easily.
The Possibilities Fintech Gives Forex Users
The same financial technology that can allow for things like online banking and even online gambling allows forex users to have accounts they can add to and withdraw from for trades in real time, making their personal accounts easy to watch. Equally, they can make trades and transactions in real time at the prices they see, which allows them to trade with confidence – knowing their trade will be instant. However, what is really interesting is what fintech gives them at the user end. Analytical tools used on forex sites have become incredibly sophisticated, allowing the user to track just about anything they want and have confidence that the data they are seeing is current and up to date.
Forex Is a Great Example of What Fintech Currently Offers
Forex uses just about every element of financial technology, from account management and transactional tech to reporting and analytics. From its early days, it has adopted banking and other financial technology and presented it to its customers, giving them new possibilities, making trading easier, and luring in new traders who are interested in forex but don’t want to spend all their time learning how to perform complex analyses themselves or seek them out on other websites.
Fintech and forex have grown together, and as a result have put a previously elite way to trade in the hands of millions of ordinary people.
Luke Hatkinson-Kent
