Discount online trading has brought the concept of trading on the stock market to the masses.
The advent and rapid development of the personal computer and fast, powerful, money-saving-job-shredding software reduced the costs of maintaining businesses such as brokerage services.
This was combined with the arrival of the internet, which made for widespread availability of brokerage services at the click of a few mouse buttons.
The automation that resulted enabled brokers to attract more customers by offering accounts with low (discounted) fees and levels of service.
Thousands upon thousands of people who would otherwise never have had the chance to trade on the financial markets were now given the chance.
And they've taken it.
You'd think that this situation would lead to a new class of successful, wealthy stock market traders and investors, using all the information available via the internet to make mostly successful trades with minimal brokerage fees.
Sadly, this has not come about.
Many of the new generation of online financial traders are at best struggling to make any decent profits.
Why should this be? It's not that there is insufficient information.
The internet is awash with it, though regrettably much of it is misleading and sales oriented.
The problem lies in finding reliable information and genuine help.
Both of these commodities, generally speaking, were available before the internet and discount trading came along.
The full service accounts that are still available (at a price) at most stock brokers, online and offline, provided help and advice for newcomers and old hands alike.
The chances of successful trading were therefore much higher.
Now the average new trader finds himself alone and often confused, in a business that uses unfamiliar terms and practices, and in markets the behaviour of which seem strange and often illogical.
To make things worse, he is often using more of his available capital than he should on each trade, and is finding that trading online can be addictive, risky and close to pure gambling.
In order to succeed in online trading whilst using discounted services you must disassociate yourself from the "herd mentality".
Most new traders see the opportunity presented to them not as a business but as the chance to get-rich-quick (or get-out-of-debt-quick).
They're encouraged in this attitude by the mass of sales pages selling information and software to do with trading the financial markets, especially forex, the graveyard of many hopes of online riches.
You, however, must see it strictly as a business with which to make regular profits.
You won't succeed with every trade you make, but you can take steps to ensure that you succeed in more than half and that every profitable trade more than wipes out the losses of several losing trades.
Investing in your online trading education is essential.
But you have to discriminate in the type of information you act on.
Learn where the most reliable information is.
Experiment with demo accounts, where you can practise trading without risking real money.
Take advantage of the discounted fees of your broker by investing in a reliable stock trading package such as Sharescope.
Finally, find a mentor - someone who actually trades the markets himself, rather than just sells information on how other people can do it.
He will have been where you are and taken the hard knocks already.
He can short-circuit the learning process for you, and you may even be able to simply copy his trades to start off with.
The internet and your computer put the world at your fingertips, so make use of that power to succeed in your online trading career.