< previous page page_16 next page >

Page 16
advice. The individual now can get market executions at the same speed as the most well-connected trading firm. The individual now has the use of electronic trading tools that rival the very best available to the institutional trading establishment. The institutions are no longer in control; their old style of business is threatened. In the Sixth Market, the individual is the new king. Long Live the King!
Sounds great doesn't it? Well, don't make the mistake of taking any of this progress for granted; a bizarre and unprecedented collection of achievements came together at the right time to make the Sixth Market possible.
Let's look at the definition again: the Sixth Market is the electronic trading of securities by the self-directed individual.
Look at what had to come together to create the electronic trading of securities:
Powerful processors
Abundant and affordable bandwidth
A reliable Internet
Fast, reliable electronic trading platforms
And then, think about what had to come together to unleash the self-directed individual:
Almost unlimited information
New regulations
A new kind of investor
Think about itif even one of those things were missing, none of today's trading would be possible. It is an improbable story at best.
Powerful Processors and Moore's Law
76db248bff5ff56a6e2f7ba76971257d.gif
''Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke
To understand the magic of technologyas with so much of the magic of the last 20 yearsyou must start with Gordon Moore and his startling law. In 1965, Gordon Moore, of Intel, was preparing a speech and made a memorable observation. When he started to graph data about the growth in memory chip performance, he realized there was a

 
< previous page page_16 next page >