With the markets riding up and down like an out of control roller coaster, online stock trading is the one place to evaluate what you’ve got and the alternatives to sectors that are getting pummeled.

The problem is, it’s hard to find a sector that’s doing well. In fact, there is not once sector that is trading and trending up.

Before online stock trading, when you had to either phone your broker or go in and visit, you had a much slower reaction time. At least as a retail stock customer. The big players, of course, had access to the market in real time, and were able to execute trades immediately in most cases.

In 1987, when the market dived, I didn’t have immediate access to my broker. At that time I couldn’t call out at work, so I lost a lot that day.  Thankfully, the market recovered in a short period of time and I was more than made whole. Probably, if the world had had access to electronic trading, it would have been different to the downside for awhile.

Now I can at least watch my individual holdings, and even though they have ridden up and down, at least I can see what is happening, and can execute trades when I want.

Still, some of the traditional havens during harder economic times are not exactly shining. The consumer stocks, the companies that make up the staples of life, they are down as well. Most of these firms produce items that are not considered luxuries, so I am going to be making a bet soon that they will attract some serious money.

Most of Europe right now is in a panic, with the central banks not knowing what to do with the bad paper that has infected a lot of financial institutions.  The European Union can’t agree on one course of action, so individual countries, such as Ireland and Germany, are acting on their own to protect their economies.

This has driven the dollar up against the Euro. Eventually that money will have to find its way into something that produces better yields that a treasury instrument. I’m betting some of those foreign investors will find consumer stocks here.