In February 1971, electronic trading is born with the launch of NASDAQ, the world’s first electronic stock market. Created by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), the “AQ” stands for Automated Quotations.

Soon a byword for innovation, NASDAQ quickly becomes the world’s second-largest stock exchange, after the New York Stock Exchange, attracting high-tech and growth stocks. Around this time, AI enters the trading lexicon.

Despite the hype, early attempts to replicate human analysis fail to deliver, and the world quickly plunges into the first “AI winter” as investment in the technology dries up. However, the touch-paper has been lit and the seeds of a tech-led financial future have been sown.

While institutional investors in New York and London are going “electronic”, so are people in offices and homes. The 1975 launch of the Altair 8800, a personal computer kit that users assemble themselves, kick-starts the microcomputing revolution—and the programming language that students Bill Gates and Paul Allen write for the Altair leads them to co-found Microsoft.

In 1981, computers go mass-market when IBM launches the IBM 5150, which uses Microsoft’s MS-DOS operating system. The first PC to be widely adopted across industry, the 5150 spawns many clones and an ecosystem of software.

In 1989, British scientist Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web while working at CERN, the particle physics laboratory in Geneva.

He affixes a handwritten note to the computer he uses to develop the code for the web, which reads: “This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!” The note does its job—and the code survives.

In 1993, CERN launches the World Wide Web software into the public domain and releases an open license, triggering the web’s massive growth.

But another innovation piques the interest of the financial world and radically changes every industry across the globe: the birth of online payments.

In 1994, the first fully online transaction between two cyberspace entrepreneurs takes place, as well as the world’s first online order, at Pizza Hut.

In June 2007, Apple introduces the iPhone, kicking off the smartphone era. Google’s Android mobile operating system launches within a year, and Apple’s iPad tablet is introduced in 2010.

These portable devices revolutionize internet connectivity and allow mobile payments.

Western Union, which had facilitated customer-to-customer money transfers since 1871, launches a smartphone app in 2011, enabling mobile money transfers.

On Sept. 15, 2008, investment bank Lehman Brothers, established in 1847, collapses, ushering in the global financial crisis.

This reshapes the financial landscape and exposes widespread and longstanding malpractice within the financial sector. In the aftermath of the crash, governments pump money into assets to prevent deflation, boosting stock prices.

The crash creates skepticism about established trading practices by banks, institutions and hedge funds—and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which allow passive investing by tracking sectors and markets, proliferate rapidly after the crash.

The lack of trust in banks leads to regulatory change, opening up the market to new providers and contributing to the rise of fintech upstarts.

With the world still reeling from the effects of the crash, a new financial vision is born. Bitcoin arrives in 2009, designed to do away with banking altogether—and it’s soon followed by other cryptocurrencies using blockchain technology. Accelerated smartphone adoption propels mobile devices to become a primary way for people to access the internet and financial services.

It’s now the age of the entrepreneur, as startups become synonymous with innovation and capture investor and consumer interest amid increased demand for new financial products and services. In 2018 alone, venture capital firms invest a total of $254 billion in 18,000 businesses around the world, an increase of 46% from the year before. New technologies from Silicon Valley and beyond make it easier to create digital banking and investment products using open banking, allowing third-party companies to access financial data. Traditional banks begin to move away from legacy systems, and “banking-as-a-service” emerges as a concept to enhance financial inclusion and improve customer experience.

As a result, the decade following 2008 sees strong growth in retail trading as more individuals are empowered to make informed financial decisions and become investors.

Starting in 2020, pandemic lockdowns force people to stay at home, changing the way they work, live and play.

Stuck indoors with time on their hands and searching for new online pastimes, many people turn to trading to learn a new skill. The popularity of retail trading apps, which allow users to conveniently trade from anywhere, soars.

Now that technology has opened up the markets and allowed anyone with a mobile phone to gain access, how will it change and evolve again to help this new generation of self-directed traders? As investors and traders become more empowered, self-directed learning will become important— technology and education will be the next frontier.

Capital.com is harnessing technology to build a best-in-class platform that puts education and learning at the centre of everything it does. Convenience and ease-of-use is key to learning—which is why Capital.com offers traders an educational app they can use on the go: Investmate. It also provides traders with a rich and free toolkit that includes varied learning materials available on its website, app and YouTube trading channels.

But to really make a difference to a trader’s learning, the experience must be personal, which is why Capital.com is combining quality education tools with cutting-edge technology to deliver a trading platform that is truly innovative, intuitive and inspired.