Human agents are involved in the background in most cases, but the process is usually very fast. Most people receive confirmation of their stock purchases and sales within a minute, often in a few seconds. There is no feeling quite like investing with a personal line into the stock market. Some people think the investing revolution is all about cheap broker commissions. The revolution is actually more profound than that, but low commissions are an extremely well-publicized part of the mix.
Online brokers emphasize their bargain fees in advertisements.
And there's no question that inexpensive trading commissions, in combination with the depth of information now available, have been the catalysts spurring the growth of online investing. This premium is exacted in the form of trading commissions - fees for executing the purchase and sale of securities. Just as a real estate agent earns a commission for managing the ownership transaction of a house, so do stockbrokers earn their living by overseeing the investments of their clients on a commission basis. It can get very expensive, with traditional stock trades sometimes costing hundreds of dollars in commissions. Online brokers have changed all that by removing the broker from the equation.