Being an investor is a concept that has an entirely different meaning in the 21st century. In the digital era, people have investment platforms instead of brokers in a traditional sense. All value updates happen in real-time, and consumers can coordinate like never before (just look at all the GameStop – r/walstreetbets controversy).
In other words, modern technology has completely altered how we manage our investments, and here are nine great examples of how this works.
- Easier diversification
Diversifying your investments protects your trends and ensures that not all your assets are doing as poorly at the time. In the past, to diversify your investments, you would have to go through different brokers and manage all your assets across many platforms.
Today, you can do it all online. You can use your phone or computer (depending on how you’ve organized your home office/working space) to buy stocks, crypto, and gold. You have to switch tabs at worst, but most of the time, even this won’t be required.
In reality, diversifying your resources has never been easier, and managing them was never more convenient. You don’t have an excuse to keep avoiding it.
- It’s easier to stay informed
With access to the internet, you can access unlimited information at any given time. The right information is out there, and it’s up to you to find it, but this is sometimes harder.
After all, someone must have prophesied that Bitcoin would go big, even back in 2015, but this cry was drowned in a sea of voices calling it a hoax. Even today, this same principle can be applied to most assets. Someone out there is making all the right guesses. If you find them and approach their advice cautiously, you’re in for a huge profit.
Just find the sources of credible information, be they blogs, whitepapers, or investment influencers. Tap into this source of information and stay true to it.
- More potent analytical tools
Today, complex analytical tools are further powered by AI and big data. This will allow you to get a far better analysis than ever.
It all comes down to how serious you are as an investor. As someone doing this for fun or just considering getting started, this is not rocket science. Conversely, getting your hands on a great portfolio analysis tool (portfolio analyzer) is a top priority for a more serious investor.
While checking features is generally a good idea, you must also understand what features you’re looking for when looking for this type of platform. In other words, you need a reference point. Generally speaking, you should look for things like:
- Performance analysis
- Asset allocation
- Risk assessment
- Tax optimization
- Historical data
Focusing on these five features is already a great start.
- Availability of digital assets
In the modern day and age, aside from investing in stocks, options, and futures, you can also make money on digital assets. While this market is a bit more volatile (when compared to traditional investments), it’s also far more rewarding for those who can make the right choices.
Still, making these investments requires you to be tech-savvy and socially responsible at the same time. There are a lot of great crypto mobile apps to try. Each offers similar features but a slightly different trading experience. The choice is greater than you think.
- Reporting in real-time
The biggest advantage of investing in the digital era is that you are informed of every change in the market in real-time. You see, even in the past, the screens on Wallstreet were updated in real-time (relatively speaking). On the other hand, individual investors had to tune in via many impractical means.
Today, you can just take your phone and look at the numbers on the screen. It’s even better since the majority of these exchanges have their sites and apps; you can just receive a notification when any change that’s relevant to you occurs. Something like this (this level of control and insight) was never possible before.
- Be cautious with leverage and margin trading
In the digital era, you can access some tempting but unsafe assets. Most people hear advice to avoid trading more than they can afford to lose. How do people get into a position where they can lose that much that quickly? The answer is – leverage and margin trading.
Roughly speaking, this is a shortcut to trading. You get leverage and a chance to trade for 50 to 100 times your worth. Your gains are proportionally a lot higher, but so are your losses. A problem with this is that while you’re potentially gaining far more, you’re also losing far more.
In the digital era, you’ll get much easier access to leverage and margin trading, which means you’ll be more tempted to abuse them.
- Pursuing socially-responsible investments
This is not just an altruistic decision. Just think about how many trends are getting boycotted, canceled, or review-bombed for taking a controversial stance. Investments are heavily affected by the court of public opinion, which means that socially-responsible investments may also be safer.
Other than this, if you believe in karma, making socially-responsible investments can help you earn some extra points.
Then again, we shouldn’t rule out altruism entirely, either. Why wouldn’t you “vote with your wallet,” and if you get rewarded for it, all the better? Remember that being a good person and making money aren’t mutually exclusive.
- Access to more alternative investments
Alternative investments were always hard to find. Just think about it, to buy great but undervalued art, you had to find local talent, walk past a talented street artist, or stumble upon the right gallery. All of these things are now completely irrelevant.
Now, you can survey all these galleries online since they’re bound to upload (at least NFTs) all their works. You can participate in subreddit discussions about these young artists and contact credible appraisers. You can also research which designer bags hold their value the best or find collectibles. There are many great alternative investments; you just need to find them.
- Tracking prices of commodities
A part of your assets needs to be in commodities. According to some, you want to keep at least 10-15% in precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, or palladium. With the help of modern technology, you can track their price movements in real-time.
Knowing the real price of these assets will also help you if you keep some of your assets in jewelry. This way, your local gold buyer won’t be able to trick you into going too low under the price. Sure, the appraisal of jewelry works differently, but being able to do a quick research can change so much and give you much more leverage.
Also, you can track news regarding the prices of these commodities. In the case of the latter two (platinum and palladium), you can even track industries that use them the most to figure out price movements.
Under the influence of modern technology, trading is more dynamic and more convenient than ever
The most important thing to remember regarding trading in the 21st century is that you have more preconditions to succeed than any of your predecessors. You can access the information they could only dream of and the biggest available number of assets and brokers. Just take the time to do your research, and the results won’t fail.