World Wide Web Essay, Research Paper

Probability and Statistics

This report is an analysis and evaluation of the statistical design project entitled “The Impact of The World Wide Web on Individual investors and Electronic Stock Trading” by Stan lim.

A. Purpose of study

The purpose of the study was to analyze and evaluate the impact of the Internet and the World Wide Web on individual investors and their trading activities. The objectives is to determine any demographic patterns in the usage of the Internet technology by individual investors, identify any trends and preferences in types of services and tools used by Internet-savvy investors, discovered the benefits sought and main reasons why investors use the Internet, evaluate the general sentiments about the relative popularity and future of Internet-based stock trading and digital exchanges, identify some of the concerns about using the Internet.

B. Sampling Design

The original research project was conducted in August 1996 and updated in March 1997, December 1997, and December 1998. The fist survey time was conducted for one week in August of 1996 to news groups and e-mail lists with total response of 74 people.

The second survey in March of 1997 was 10 weeks in length, to news groups, e-mails, and web-postings with a total response of 174 people.

The third survey in December 1997 was 40 weeks in length, to postings on the web and various links with a total response of 166 people.

The forth survey was conducted for 53 weeks in length and ended on December 1998, the audience for this survey was web-postings and links, with a total response of 121 people.

The initial survey had a very short survey period and a very small sample of responses of which lead to sampling errors. The other updated surveys expanded the survey time and had more responses to the survey. The Audiences were changed in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th surveys from the first survey audiences.

The scope audiences seem to be very narrow and might be targeted toward people who already invest in stock market and those who currently use the Internet to invest.

C. Graphical Representation

Each of the four surveys in the Demographic Area were represented. The females in all the surveys seemed to be under represented. The age groups of the audiences are getting younger and more evenly distributed with each surveys that was updated. The years of trading on the Internet is going down with each survey conducted.

The Technology Usage categories appears to be similar throughout all four surveys. In the December 1998 survey, phone trading went down, the modem trades were relatively the same throughout the four surveys. The World Wide Web Investment Related Applications continued to decrease throughout the four surveys.

The reasons for using the World Wide Web appears to be consistent throughout all four surveys. Continued usage of the World Wide Web appears to be relatively the same throughout the four surveys. Making more money using the World Wide Web continue to be more evenly distributed over the three categories in the most recent survey.

The Preferences Category indicates the preferred method of trading continues to be on the World Wide Web throughout all four surveys. The preferred source of information continues to be the World Wide Web and the utilizing trade broker continues to be less.

The Crystal Ball category indicates that digital trading will increase, electronic trading will be more popular in the future, and a digital stock exchange appears to be more popular than traditional stock markets.

D. Interpretation

The first survey indicated that the main reason why people use the World Wide Web is for the convenience, but the majority of the users were long time traders. They indicated an interest in electronic trading, but may believe security may be an issue.

The second survey indicated that more new people are using the Internet for trading and real-time stocks quotes are becoming more popular. Convenience and the timeliness are still important reasons for using the World Wide Web.

The third survey indicates more and more new traders using the Internet. The three main reasons for the increase use of the World Wide Web are timeliness of data, access to news and again convenience.

The fourth survey results indicate an increase in new traders using the World Wide Web. The main reasons for using the World Wide Web continue to be timeliness of data, access to news and convenience.

The four surveys continued to reaffirm that the users of the World Wide Web continues to use the Internet because of the timeliness of data, access to news and convenience. The age of users continually go down. One problem with the survey results appears that no attempt was made to survey people that currently do not use the Internet. The sample size of women was small in all surveys. Is age of the Internet user going down because there are more computers, business and schools having access to and using the World Wide Web? Is the use of the World Wide Web trading do to fact that the economy is booming and more people are working ? These ideas need to be explored further.