I am curious how stock markets worked before the advent of computers. Trading today is so fast, I can’t wrap my head around how it could have worked before computers were involved.
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Trading didn’t happen as fast. 😛
You had individuals shouting orders at each other and conducting trades in person.
Mr. Smith would offer 1000 shares at $14 and Mr Jones would say “I’ll give you $13.50”. Then Mr. Smith would shout back, “will you take $13.75” and a deal would happen.
The bid/ask spread in those days was HUGE, even for a well known stock.
Today you can bid fractions of pennies. Before 2001, you could have prices in fractional terms of 1/16th units.
That’s 6.25 cents in price difference.
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