Building an Online Stock Trading Site

Online stock trading sites have exploded in popularity. From early chat rooms catering to tip-givers and takers to today's advanced Internet communities, online stock trading sites have become a major force in the exchange of information, opinions, and recommendations for how to trade the stock market.

Instructions

1. Determine whether your site is going to be focused on the entire market, or simply a particular set of niche stocks. Would it be better to cover every equity in the market universe, or just focus on one sector, or even one industry, and provide a level of in depth information and analysis that more general stock trading websites can't compete with?

2. Decide if the stock market information you provide will center around corporate fundamentals, such as revenue, earnings, and news announcements, or if you'll focus on technical analysis. Technical analysis involves utilizing price charts and indicators to help traders forecast whether a stock might be going up or down in the future. Some traders exclusively use fundamental analysis, other traders use technical analysis, and still others combine the two approaches. It's important to understand your intended audience before building the site.

3. Figure out if you want your online trading site to be interactive, to include forums, chat rooms, and the ability for visitors to create online personalities, in the manner of a social networking site, or if it's just going to be an informational portal that only you or your editorial staff can post on. Building an interactive capability can be more technologically challenging and require more money, time, and oversight, but the benefits in customer satisfaction may greatly outweigh the costs.

4. Design and upload your website. If you're familiar with website design, and proficient with codes like HTML and Java, you might consider building the site yourself. But if you lack these skills, or the elaborate design process seems as if it would be too time consuming, consider hiring a programmer. Programmers might seem expensive, but if you make a lot of mistakes building the website yourself and have to call one in later, after you've gone live, they will cost even more. Be sure you work closely with the programmer to ensure the website is smooth, intuitive, and meets the needs of your intended audience.

5. Go live with the website and begin testing it. No matter how hard you or your programmer worked to perfect the site during the design phase, certain irregularities, bugs, or things you otherwise would like to change, will become apparent when the website is live. Tweak these until you feel you've got it right. Once you think the site is operating as good as it can be, start promoting it. Post at other stock trading websites and forums, or consider creating a channel at popular social networking sites to get the word out. If you can afford it, even consider advertising on websites or search engines, but be aware that this can get expensive quickly.