Chen was the first generation of investors
to buy stocks in China. In the early years of 1990s, China opened its first
stock exchange in Shanghai. At that time, people in this developing country was
curious about this new product. Chen was one of few people, who spent all his
money to buy the stocks. In order to do that, Chen must travel long distance to
the Shanghai from his hometown and visit the office of securities broker firms.
He filled the order form and then turned it in with the required cash. After
that, the broker would call the officials at the Shanghai Stock Exchange. More
than three hours later, Chen can know whether or not his order had been traded.
If not, he could get the refund. Chen has saved all this early order forms. 
Several years passed, and Chen earned
millions of money from the stock market. With the advancement of information
technology, lots of securities broker firms developed their order and trade
information system. Also, Chen owned his personal computer, a Dell brand PC. He
installed a simple application in his PC. Then, he can submit his order at
home. He went through the finance news from the Internet website as he drank
coffee. When he read about good news about listed companies, he submitted his
order to buy these stocks in a few seconds and got confirmed within one second.
He was happy because he could do that at home.
Now, Chen is a fan of Apple. He even bought
an iPhone from Hong Kong when iPhone was not available in mainland China. He
installed an app in his iPhone. No matter he is waiting an airplane or he is
drinking with his friends, he can check the stock market and even submit his
order to buy or sell stocks. Just several click on his iPhone, a transaction
with up to millions dollars can be finished. Chen is able to travel around the
country. At the same time, he can buy or sell any stock, no matter where he is.
Chen really enjoys the convenience of information technology.
In the past couples of decades, the information and communication technology has totally changed the way that people reach the stock market.
The time of trade transaction has been substantially reduced. It may take more than two hours to match the buy and sell orders twenty year ago. But now the same transaction can be committed with a thousandth of a second. According to one article published at Computerworld, NYSE shrinks time measurement to nanoseconds, which means a transaction can be finished within just several billionth of a second.
The place where people order transaction has no limitation. People need travel to special offices to submit their order to buy or sell stocks before they can access Internet at home. When they have personal computer and access to Internet, these things became very easy. Now with the wireless communication technology, people can access to the stock market at almost any place around the world. Even at the highest mount, you can access the Internet and place your orders to buy Starbucks stocks.
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