It could be argued that even with the wild gyrations of the past few months, many were still in denial about the state of the financial markets. Last week, fear was rife as traders, investors, and the man on the street could no longer deny the magnitude of the global sell off. Some commentators are referring to it as the great crash of 2008. Certainly, there have been bigger one day falls in percentage terms, but the scale and unyielding nature of the October’s sell off of is unique. You only had to take your eyes off a market like the Dow Jones for a second, and it will have moved 100 points in either direction. This level of volatility is almost unheard of. For days markets have continued to show signs of complete surrender, days that may have become capitulation low points in the past, yet the sell off still continued. People looking for the bounce that often follows such waterfall sell offs, have so far unfortunately been too early and quite wrong.

The VIX options volatility index, often referred to as the ‘fear gauge’, has spiked to levels even higher than those registered during the height of the dotcom bubble collapse. This is a broad decline with no one sector out on its own in leading declines. Financials are down of course, but so too is the energy sector, as oil continues to break down. Last year around the quiet period and intermediate high of August, the FTSE had a daily range of around 60 points. Last week it was moving that much every 15 minutes. These are extraordinary times and many technical indicators are flashing at levels never seen before. At best, central governments are hoping that the coordinated rate bomb and localized interventions have stopped Armageddon, there is now no hope of the UK, US, Irish and Spanish economies avoiding recession.

Since the first stock started trading on a stock exchange, the stock market has created millionaires. This has not changed since then. Stock trading can be an exciting hobby or a very profitable career. While many still invest the traditional way and buy stocks for long term gains, more and more people trade online and make profits even intraday.

Today you can buy and sell stocks around the clock in almost every stock market in the world. The US stock market is still very popular but why not investing in some of the great companies overseas? It has become so easy today to buy shares online that everybody with a PC and access to the Internet can do it.

What makes stock trading so fascinating? It is probably the possibility to get instant access to the markets. All the information you need is delivered in real time today at low costs. Stock quotes, fundamental data, news, charts. You can be your own investment adviser and make your own decisions.

A private stock trader has almost the same level of information and execution possibilities as a professional trader at the trading desk of a bank. The only difference is that the bank trader most likely has a much deeper pocket and probably direct access to the trading floor. Beside of that, access to information is equal.

There is a variety of online stock brokers today, more than we can count. How to find the right one? First you need to make the decision to trade either alone or together with the help of an experienced trader. There is nothing against doing everything yourself, with a discount broker you safe much fees and you are able to execute your trades yourself without human interaction. A full service broker gives you advice where you need it and does everything for you.

If you are joining the trading community because you want to make quick profits, you are better off with a discount broker. You will trade more often and the cheaper commissions save you a lot of money provided that you make the right decisions and make profits. A broker will charge you around $5 to $10 per buy or sell and the fill through a discount broker shouldn’t take longer than a few seconds or a minute.

Many brokers offer many trading platforms what does not make the choice easier. If you are a beginner in investing online then you are doing probably great by choosing one of the known brokers who offer entry level platforms which are easy to use. You have a buy and sell button and beside of defining the numbers of shares you want to order there is nothing more to decide. Once you have made a couple of trades want more, you can take a direct access platform which costs some money but allows you to do dozens of trades per day with ease.

No matter if you are an investor or day trader, the stock markets offer thousands of possibilities every day to make money. The US stock market alone is the home of thousands of different companies which have their shares listed with various stock exchanges. The shares are traded in real time every day for more than 6 hours, pre- and post market trading not included.