How the internet is being utilised by modern investors

Thanks to the internet, investing in stocks, shares and property has never been easier to do. What was once the preserve of a small professional elite is now an option for anybody with a computer, and there are all sorts of helpful online tools to make it easier. Approached intelligently, it can be a great way to make your money work for you and to build up a fund to enjoy in retirement or pass on to your loved ones when you go.

Developing your portfolio

If you’re considering buying shares for the first time, it’s a good idea to start by simply imagining you’ve bought some and tracking what would happen to your fantasy investments over three to six months. This is easy to do using free online share tracking software and it will help you get a feel for the markets. When you’re ready to invest seriously, you’ll do best if you can balance your riskier choices (usually the ones that offer higher returns) against safer ones like government bonds or shares in multinationals with long histories of success. The internet is really useful for researching companies to find out about their histories, and you can also research their key personnel. You can then buy your shares through an online broker.

Managing your portfolio

In order to manage your portfolio successfully, you’ll need to keep track not just of individual share values but also of market sectors and even national economies. Understanding supply chains and how issues in one sector can affect another can make it easier for you to predict which will be the best times to buy or sell. To do this, it’s useful to make connections with other investors or even take professional investment advice. Although many people still prefer to do this in person, online teleconferencing tools can be a great help when you’re trying to meet with other people who have busy and erratic schedules. For similar reasons, it’s often better to use email than rely on the phone – but if you do need to make phone calls, especially internationally, VOIP makes it much cheaper.

Global reach

One of the most important features of the internet is the way that it has enabled entrepreneurs to do business in multiple locations at once. If you check out Mukesh Valabhji on Intelvision, for instance, you’ll see that he uses it to reach a global audience. As the owner of Capital Management, he advises individual investors all the time, and the internet lets him connect with them more efficiently as well as helping him to keep track of information that helps him manage their portfolios.

Although it can feel like quite a challenge to get to grips with internet tools, especially when they’re constantly changing, doing so ultimately means that investors can achieve a lot more than they could in the past. What’s more, now that more and more people are taking advantage of these tools, no one can afford to be left behind.