If you’re an active investor in stocks or researching your options to invest soon, there may be one aspect that you’ve overlooked. Namely, using a VPN when trading. Should you use a VPN when trading stocks?
Well, simply put, the answer is yes. Let’s go into more detail as to the reasons why below.
1. Secure Your Traffic
Connecting to a VPN on your device encrypts your internet traffic—specifically, all the data going between the VPN server and your device.
This encryption is necessary because it prevents hackers from getting onto your network and downloading this data.
Cybercriminals can glean all kinds of private information from your traffic on an unsecured network, including bank details, personal information, files, and more. Your whole identity could be copied, your banking accounts emptied, and your trading accounts’ logins stolen before you even realize it.
Not securing your traffic with the best VPN you can find will leave your stocks and other data vulnerable.
2. Hide Your IP Address
During your trading sessions, your trading platform will see your IP address, and this address contains a lot of information about you that you may not have known. For example, from your IP address, someone can know:
- Your location (country, city, postal code)
- Your Internet Service Provider (ISP)
- When you’re connected to the internet/offline
If your trading platform is the victim of a hack, your IP address and all associated information are now in the hands of cybercriminals. And you’ll be surprised at how much someone can do with these relatively trivial pieces of information.
It’s invasive at best and financially or emotionally damaging at worst. A VPN can prevent this risk when trading on your chosen platform.
3. Add Privacy
Whenever you use your home’s WiFi connection, your ISP can see what you’re doing. They can see you read the news in the morning or scroll Reddit during the afternoon. They can also see anytime you log onto your trading account and who you have an account with.
While they won’t be able to see the details of your trades and transactions, they know how much time you’ve spent on it, how often you visit, and when you visited.
The thought of this can be a little disconcerting. In a world where every move seems to be watched, sometimes it’s nice to feel like you finally have privacy. And this is what using a VPN can provide.
Your ISP won’t be able to see what you’re doing or when you’re trading as long as you’ve connected to a VPN before you jump online.
4. Prevent Throttling
As a follow-on to the above, sometimes ISPs have a problem with how much bandwidth or data a customer uses. If they are not happy, they can throttle your connection, which will greatly reduce your internet speed. This is designed to discourage people from using the internet and forces people to decrease the amount of bandwidth they use.
However, just connecting to the best VPN on the market will stop them from seeing this information. They’ll only be able to see which server you’re connected to (the VPN server) and nothing more, keeping your speeds high and stable.
5. No More Phishing
Phishing attacks are responsible for more than 80% of reported security incidents. Phishing is a huge problem and is increasing yearly. This type of scam is the main way hackers steal investments and even crypto from people.
Phishing comes in the form of spam emails, fake giveaways, spoofing exchange platforms, and more. When the attacks are so frequent and often sophisticated, it’s easy to see why some people become victims.
While a VPN can’t directly prevent phishing, they usually come with a blocklist feature to stop you from accidentally landing on phishing websites. And since most phishing websites are related to trading stocks or crypto, this is a handy feature to have, which could save you a heap of hassle and stress.
6. No More Georestricting
Have you ever wanted to visit a trading platform that was restricted in your location? Sometimes, it can be incredibly frustrating to be blocked out of certain sites for seemingly arbitrary reasons.
However, since a VPN will let you choose the location you want your IP address to show, you can visit any trading site in the world. For example, if you’re in France and want to get onto a site in the U.K, set your IP address for the U.K and voilà. Quick, easy, and no fuss.
Final Thoughts
There are so many advantages to using a VPN when trading that it’s a no-brainer to get one set up on your devices, especially since the cost of having one is relatively low.
By getting set up with the best VPN on the market, you can trade safely, prevent yourself from being the victim of cybercriminals, and not stress about your private information or trading information being sold on the dark web. Using a VPN while trading is an easy solution for everyone!
