Modern prop firm trading is heavily reliant on the adoption of advanced trading software in almost every aspect of a firm’s business, and in 2023 it is simply not an option to eschew trading software as part of a firm’s financial trading protocol.
It is a fascinating subject and a huge part of the rapid growth of technology stocks from the 1990s until today has been caused in no small part thanks to the adoption of various different tools onto the very activity of trading, fundamentally shifting what it means to be a trader in the 2020s.
However, arguably the most recent seismic shift in how bankers trade took place in 1996, when the ultimate evolution of trading in the dotcom era emerged when one of the most forward-thinking stock exchanges took trading into cyberspace.
How Nasdaq Built The Dotcom Boom
The story of the Nasdaq stock exchange is one of the most important in the history of the modern financial markets, as it has led the way when it comes to technological revolutions, from automated stock trading to artificial intelligence, which powers a variant of the popular Midpoint Extended Life Order (M-ELO).
It is the second biggest stock exchange by market cap, the most active by trading volume and is the home of some of the biggest publicly traded companies in the world such as Apple, and it did so by embracing the same innovative spirit.
There are so many stories in this vein that will require further exploration, but one of the biggest and most impactful in both the immediate and longer terms is the launch of the Nasdaq website in 1996.
The World Wide Web has existed since 1990 and commercially available web browsers such as Mosaic since 1993, but it took three more years for the stock market to take note.
In 1996 Nasdaq launched its website, which became the first public website operated by a financial exchange in history, fundamentally changing the way in which information and trading was undertaken.
Market information previously only available to stockbrokers was now publicly available, and investors could access stock quotes at any time during the trading day, albeit with a 15-minute delay.
At the time, this was a revolution, and the first step towards what would become the modern stock market, unchained from physical exchanges and over-the-counter trades.
Investors from anywhere in the world could log on and get levels of information previously unavailable and developed a community of its own that is still seen today in online investors, one which is still making seismic shifts in how investors do business.
It was also the logical extension of the goal of a decentralised exchange based officially in one location but accessible anywhere in the world for people to make investments.
It was a major step forward that inspired a lot of technology start-ups and internet-based businesses to publicly trade on the Nasdaq, starting what became the dotcom boom and the rise of the dominance of technology shares at the upper echelons of the market.
